KIT 


University  of  California  •  Berkeley 

BEQUEST  OF 
HARVEY  FERGUSSON 


s 


KIT    CAH.SOU. 


LIFE 


OF 


KIT  CARSON, 


THE 


GREAT  WESTERN  HUNTER  AND  GUIDE: 


COMPRISING 


WILD  AND  ROMANTIC  EXPLOITS  AS  A  HUNTER  AND  TRAPPE1 

THE  ROCKY  MOUNTAINS;  THRILLING   ADVENTURES   AND 

HAIRBREADTH  ESCAPES  AMONG  THE  INDIANS  AND 

MEXICANS;    HIS   DARING   AND    INVALUABLE 

SERVICES  AS  A  GUIDE  TO  SCOUTING 

AND  OTHER  PARTIES,  ETC.,  ETC. 


WITH  AN  ACCOUNT  OF  VARIOUS  GOVERNMENT  EXPEDITIONS 
TO  THE  FAR  WEST. 


BY  CHARLES  BURDETT. 


ILLUSTRATED. 


PHILADELPHIA: 
PORTER    &    COATE8, 


Copyright,  1865,  by  JOHN  iu  1*0X7X7 


PREFACE. 


IN  offering  to  the  public  a  revised  and  complete 
history  of  the  most  remarkable  of  American  fron- 
tiersmen, we  perform  a  pleasing  task.  All  the  at- 
tainable circumstances  connected  with  his  life,  ad- 
ventures and  death  are  fully  set  forth,  and  we  offer 
this  in  confidence  as  a  reliable  authority  for  the 
reader. 

No  one  should  hesitate  to  familiarize  himself  with 
the  exploits  of  the  subject  of  this  volume.  They 
evince  a  magnanimity  and  an  uprightness  of  char- 
acter that  is  rarely  found  in  one  leading  so  daring 
and  intensely  wild  a  life,  and  cannot  but  contribute 
their  share  of  lustre  to  the  interesting  records  of  the 
Far  West.  We  regret  that  his  modesty,  equally 
proverbial  with  his  daring,  prompted  him  to  with- 
hold many  of  the  exciting  incidents  of  his  career 
from  the  public. 

We  have  compiled  a  portion  of  this  work  from 
such  official  reports  of  his  great  skill,  indomitable 
energy,  and  unfaltering  'courage  as  have  been  com- 

3 


4  PREFACE. 

municated  by  his  friend  and  commander,  Col.  Fre- 
mont, who  has  invariably  awarded  to  him  all  the 
best  attributes  of  manhood,  when  opportunity  af- 
forded. Added  to  these,  our  hero  had  been  prevailed 
upon  by  a  few  of  his  friends  to  communicate  some 
of  the  records  of  the  most  important  passages  in 
his  extraordinary  and  eventful  life,  which  are  em- 
bodied in  this  volume. 

His  has  indeed  been  a  life  of  peculiarly  exciting 
personal  hazards,  bold  adventures,  daring  coolness, 
and  moral  and  physical  courage,  such  as  has  seldom 
transpired  in  the  world,  and  we  have  been  greatly 
impressed,  in  its  preparation,  with  the  necessity  for  a 
thorough  work  of  this  kind.  All  are  aware  that  the 
young,  and  even  matured,  often  seek  for  books  of 
wild  adventure,  and  if  those  of  an  unhurtful  and 
truthful  character  are  not  found,  they  are  apt  to  be- 
take themselves  to  trashy  and  damaging  literature. 
In  this  view,  this  work  has  a  purpose  which,  we 
trust,  will  commend  it  to  every  family 
the  land. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

of  tlie  narrative — from  what  race  descended — his 
fame — theater  of  his  exploits — nativity — his  father  emi- 
grates to  Missouri — father's  occupation — Kit's  appren- 
ticeship— dissatisfaction  with  his  trade — joins  an  expedi- 
tion to  Santa  Fe — surgical  operation — Santa  Fe,  its 
situation,  business,  style  of  buildings,  water,  appearance, 
altitude,  scenery,  population — spends  the  winter  at  Taoa 
— learns  the  Spanish  language — -joins  a  party  bound  to 
Missouri — fe  turns  to  Santa  Fe — becomes  a  teamster- 
El  Paso,  its  grape  culture,  style  of  living  of  its  people, 
name — youth  of  traveler — new  occupation  for  the  winter 
—becomes  interpreter  for  a  trader 38 

CHAPTER    II. 

Chihuahua,  cathedral,  statues,  public  buildings,  convent, 
mint,  trade,  age,  population — Carson  longs  for  the  prairie 
— changes  employment — returns  to  Taos — joins  a  party 
of  hunters  and  trappers  to  punish  the  Indians — result  of 
the  affray — Indian  style  of  fighting — method  of  trapping 
for  beaver — beaver  signs — setting  the  traps — bait- 
fastening  the  traps — caution  in  setting  the  traps 21 

(5) 


6  CONTEXTS. 

CHAPTER   III. 

•Mi 

Oarson  s  qualifications  for  a  trapper — starts  fct  California — 
desert  in  the  route — Mohave  Indians,  non-intercourse 
with  whites,  appearance,  dress,  ornaments,  painting  their 
bodies,  money — Mission  San  Gabriel,  cattle,  horses, 
sheep,  mules,  vineyards,  income — other  Missions  in  Cal- 
ifornia, when  founded,  laborers — Missions  of  Upper 
California — Missionary  subscriptions — management  of 
the  fund — Coinmandante-general — the  Monks — golden 
age  of  the  Missions 2fc 

CHAPTER    IV. 

New  Mexico  and  Arizona — their  desert  prairies — Carson 
in  California — traps  on  the  San  Joaquin — the  valley  of 
the  Sacramento 40 

CHAPTER  V. 

The  Digger  Indians,  a  description  of  them,  and  their  mode 
of  living — Carson's  visit  to  a  ranclie  in  search  of  a  cow- 
hid  journey  to  the  camp  with  his  prize 45 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Carson  at  the  Mission  San  Gabriel — recovers  sixty  stolott 
horses  after  a  tight  with  the  Indians — "Los  Angelos"— 
climate  of  California 54 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Visit  to  a  ranche — likes  California,  but  likes  buffalo  better 
— leaves  Los  Angclos,  and  traps  on  the  Colorado — in  a 
tight  place,  but  gets  out  of  it ,  ..  66 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

Trapping  with  Young  upon  the  Colorado — captures  cattle 
and  horses  from  the  Indians — goes  to  Santa  Fe,  disposes 
of  furs,  and  sows  his  wild  oats — coureurs  des  Lois,  travels. 


CONTEXTS.  7 

feftM 

dress,  "habits — joins  Mr.  Fitzpatrick  trapping  among  the 
Nez  Perces — winters  in  the  New  Park — punishes  the 
Crow  Indians  for  horse-stealing — pursues  and  punishes 
rubbers  of  a  cache — flies  from  a  party  of  sixty  Indians,..  76 

CHAPTER  IX. 

Hunts  with  two  companions — saving  his  money — trading 
with  Captain  Lee — pursues  an  Indian  horse-thief  and 
recovers  the  horses  without  assistance — traps  on  the 
Laramie — fight  with  two  grizzlies — description  of  the 
grizzly  bear,  his  food — traps  among  the  Blackfeet — un- 
successful attempt  to  chastise  Blackfeet  horse-thieves— 
Carson  is  wounded — Bridger's  pursuit  without  finding 
them 83 

CHAPTER  X. 

Oarson,  recovered,  attends  summer  rendezvous  on  Green 
River — description  of  the  rendezvous — camp,  traders, 
charges- — British  Fur  Comnapv — the  Indians  bringing 
in  furs — appearance  of  Montreal  at  a  fair  for  the  Indians 
— trappers  and  traders  from  the  States — purchases  of  the 
trappers,  necessaries,  luxuries,  Indian  wife 93 

CHAPTER  XI. 

Green  River  rendezvous  again — the  backwoodsman — Car- 
son the  peace-maker — Sherman  the  bully,  his  punish- 
ment— cause  of  the  duel — trapping  and  parley  with  the 
Blackfeet — on  Humboldt  River — explores  the  desert- 
discovers  the  river  afterwards  named  for  him 101 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Dreary  prospect  on  the  Humboldt — Humboldt  Lake — sinks 
of  other  rivers — overflow  of  Humboldt  Lake  and  River 
— station  at  the  sink,  the  traders — Humboldt  Indians — 
Fourth  of  July  on  the  Humboldt — Humboldt  sinking — 
land  available  for  agriculture  011  this  river 10S 


8  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   XIII. 

MM 

Carson  on  the  Humboldfc — sufferings  of  the  return  party- 
Pyramid  Circle — a  horse  purchased  for  food — buffalo 
hunt,  meat  jerked — horses  stolen  by  the  Indians — ex- 
tent of  buffalo  ranges — buffalo  upon  the  Platte  in  1857, 
numbers,  trails  crossing  the  river,  animals  killed lid 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

Carson  traps  with  a  party  of  a  hundred  in  the  Blackfcet 
country — winter  camp  among  the  Crows — Indian  lodges 
— winter  life  of  the  trappers — fight  with  the  Blackfeet — 
Carson  saves  the  life  of  a  friend,  dislodges  the  Indiana 
from  a  rocky  fastness,  and  compels  their  flight — no  more 
molestation — the  rendezvous — trade  with  the  Navnjos 
Indians — fort  at  Brown's  Hole — goes  again  against  the 
Blackfeet,  a  thousand  warriors  assemble,  retire  without 
an  engagement — traps  on  the  Salmon  River — among  the 
Blackfeet,  another  fight,  leaves  their  country — Chinook 
and  Flathcad  Indians — process  of  flattening  the  head..  126 

CHAPTER  XV. 

Carson  continues  trapping — the  trade  becomes  unprofitable 
— war  of  extermination  upon  the  beaver,  silk  for  hats 
prevents — Carson's  experience  enables  him  to  aid  one 
who  should  explore  in  behalf  of  science — knowledge  of 
the  country — comes  to  Bent's  Fort,  forsaking  trapping 
— becomes  hunter  for  the  fort — his  employers — his 
business — reputation  as  a  hunter — fulfills  the  early  hopes 
of  him — knowledge  of  the  country — regard  shown  him, 
especially  by  the  Indians — diplomatist  between  the  Sioux 
and  the  Camanches — marriage — death  of  his  wife — 
takes  his  child  to  St.  Louis  for  education — changes  at 
his  old  home — reception  at  St.  Louis — meets  Col.  Fre- 
mont— engages  to  guide  Fremont's  exploring  party  to 
the  South  Pass  in  tV  Rocky  Mountains 139 


CONTEXTS.  9 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

MM 

Party  of  explorers  starting — style  of  encamping — defense 
— morning  in  camp — ford  of  the  Kansas — India-rubber 
boat — accident  from  overloading  the  boat — Carson  ill — 
lies  in  camp  on  the  prairie 152 

CHAPTER    XVII. 

Road  over  rolling  prairie — Pawnee  country — false  alarm 
of  the  presence  of  Indians — Carson  rides  to  discover 
the  cause — coast  of  the  Platte  River — party  of  trappers 
from  Fort  Laramie — one  of  this  party  joins  Fremont's 
company — buffalo — appearance  of  the  herds — feasting 
in  the  camp — Carson's  mishap  in  the  hunt — Carson, 
Maxwell,  and  Fremont  join  in  the  chase 157 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

Fremont  divides  his  party — attempt  to  lasso  a  wild  horse — 
Maxwell  prevents  an  Indian  attack — Indians  on  a  buf- 
falo hunt — return  laden  with  meat — Cheyenne  village — 
tripod  support  for  their  weapons — Fremont  entertained 
by  the  chief — tribute  to  the  Great  Spirit  on  taking  the 
pipe — Jim  Beckwith — other  settlers  on  the  mountain 
streams — St.  Vrain's  Fort — Fort  Laramie — Carson's 
camp — excitement  in  the  company — hostile  intentions 
of  the  Indians — preparations  for  continuing  the  explo- 
rations— one  of  the  command  dismissed 167 

CHAPTER    XIX. 

The  growth  of  Artemisia — fate  of  the  Indian  party  so 
much  dreaded — cache  of  wagons  and  other  effect*— 
value  of  Carson's  aid  to  Fremont — propriety  of  calling 
this  an  exploring  party — ascent  to  the  South  Pass- 
exploration  up  a  tributary  of  Green  River — lake  at  its 
source — continue  to  explore  in  the  mountains — Fremont 
climbs  the  highest  summit — why  Carson  was  not  with 
bim... ....  178 


10  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    XX 

JAM 

Party  returns  to  Fort  Laramie — Carson  remains- — marriag« 
— joins  Fremont — a  second  exploring  expedition — 
object  of  the  expedition — Great  Salt  Lake — Fremont's 
description — current  impressions  in  regard  to  the  lake 
— Beer  Springs — Hot  Springs — Standing  Rock 188 

CHAPTER    XXI. 

A  part  of  Fremont's  men  return  East — leave  Fort  Hall, 
en  route  for  the  valley  of  the  Columbia — difficulty  of 
finding  camping  places — Carson  kills  buffalo — melan- 
choly looking  country — crossing  Snake  River — fish- 
eating  Indians — refitting  equipage  at  the  Dalles — pro- 
posed return  route — spirits  of  the  party — Tlamath 
Lake — sufferings  of  the  party 208 

CHAPTER    XXII. 

Fremont's  story  of  the  difficulties  and  exposures  of  his 
party — hot  springs — explorations  for  grass — mountain 
lake — central  ridge  of  the  Sierra  Nevada — Indians — 
talks  by  signs — Indian  guide — encouragement  afforded 
by  Carson's  descriptions  of  California — provisions  low — 
Bnow  deep — animals  weak — Indian  harangue — guide 
deserts — Carson  recognizes  Sacramento  valley  and  the 
coast  range — taking  the  horses  through  the  snow — sleds 
for  the  baggage — pine  nuts  the  food  of  the  Indians — 
glorious  sunrise 217 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

Thunder  storm — view  of  the  Sacramento,  and  Bay  of  San 
Francisco — mauls  to  path  the  snow — Carson  saves  Fre- 
mont from  drowning — rauid  river,  snow,  grass,  pines, 
live  oak,  mistletoe — division  of  the  party — horses  lost — 
members  of  the  party  wander,  return — horses  killed  for 
food — country  improving  in  beauty — arrival  at  Sutler's 
Fort — description  of  a  cache 237 


CONTENTS.  11 

CHAPTER  XXIY. 

VAQtt 

Carson  at  hoinj  in  Taos — decides  to  commence  farming — 
preparations  —Fremont  requests  his  service  tor  a  third 
expedition — meeting  at  Bent's  Fort — head-waters— 
Great  Salt  Lake — expedition  divides — Horse-Thief  In- 
dians— the  skirmish 250 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

Arrival  at  Slitter's  Fort — command  of  Gen.  Castro  to  leave 
the  country — his  march  against  Fremont — Fremont  de- 
parts for  Oregon — Indians  instigated  by  the  Mexicans, 
Fremont's  march  against  them — he  returns  to  California 
— another  Indian  fight ,  264 

CHAPTER    XXVI. 

Loss  to  Fremont's  party — Carson's  attack  upon  Indian 
village — start  for  the  Sacramento — Fremont's  campaign 
against  the  Mexicans — captures  Sonoma— calls  Ameri- 
can settlers  into  his  service — Gen.  Castro  leaves  San 
Francisco — Fremont  garrisons  Sutter's  Fort — marches 
to  Monterey — Commodore  Sloat  in  possession — hoists 
the  flag  of  the  United  States 273 

CHAPTER    XXVII. 

I  remont  marches  on,  and  occupies  Los  Angelos — appointed 
Governor  of  California — Carson  starts  for  Washington 
as  bearer  of  dispatches — unexpected  meeting  with  Apache 
Indians — meets  the  expedition  of  Gen.  Kearney — returns 
to  California  as  guide 280 

CHAPTER    XXVIII. 

March  to  California — Mexicans  intercept  Kearney's  troops 
— American  attack  on  the  Mexican  force — disastrous 
result — Carson  and  Lieut.  Beale  reach  San  Diego — re- 
infoi  cements  sent  by  Com.  Stockton — capture  of  Los 
Angelos — Mexicans  surrender  to  Fremont — want  of 
harmony  in  the  American  camps 286 


12  CONTEXTS. 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

MM 

Graphic  description  of  the  entrance  into  Monterey,  of  Fre- 
mont, Carson,  and  party — indiscretions  of  American 
officers — Kearney's  dispatch  to  the  War  Department — 
Fremont's  extraordinary  ride 302 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

Fremont  visits  his  Mariposa  purchase — grand  hunt  and 
ball — the  fandango— Carson  and  Beale  ordered  to  Wash- 
ington— kind  reception — appointed  to  a  lieutenancy- 
encounter  with  Camanches — arrival  at  Los  Angelos — 
sent  to  the  Tejon  Pass — again  to  Washington — arrival 
at  home — the  warlike  Apaches — Carson  entertains  Fre- 
mont and  suffering  explorers 315 

CHAPTER    XXXI. 

Dreadful  sufferings  endured  by  Fremont  and  party — error 
in  engaging  a  guide — Fremont's  letter  to  his  wife — hor- 
rible details 330 

CHAPTER  XXXII. 

Mr.  Carvalho's  narrative — cravings  of  hunger — disgusting 
food  considered  a  delicacy — Death  of  Mr.  Fuller — Car- 
son joins  Col.  Beale  as  guide — the  Apache  and  Camanche 
Indians 341 

CHAPTER   XXXIII. 

Jiirson  and  Maxwell's  settlement — exploits  in  defense  of 
his  neighbors — encounter  with  the  Cheyennes — rescue..  341 

CHAPTER    XXXIV. 

Grand  trapping  expedition — the  Mountain  Parks — 
Pike's  Peak — Carson  drives  sheep  to  California — 
San  Francisco — appointed  Indian  Agent — habits- 
services  in  New  Mexico — his  death  at  Fort  Lyon — 
summing  up 369 


LIFE   OF 

CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 


CHAPTER    I. 

As,  for  their  intrepid  boldness  and  stern 
truthfulness,  the  exploits  and  deeds  of  the  old 
Danish  sea-kings,  have,  since  the  age  of  Canute, 
been  justly  heralded  in  song  and  story ;  so  now 
by  the  world-wide  voice  of  the  press,  this,  their 
descendant,  as  his  name  proves  him,  is  brought 
before  the  world:  and  as  the  stern  integrity  of 
the  exploits  and  deeds  of  the  old  Danes  in  the 
age  of  Canute  were  heralded  by  song  and 
story ;  so  too,  in  this  brief  and  imperfect  me- 
moir, are  those  of  one  who  by  name  and  birth- 
right claims  descent  from  them.  The  subject 
of  the  present  memoir,  Christopher  Carson,  fa- 
miliarly known  under  the  appellation  of  Kit 
Carson,  is  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  men 

(13) 


14  LIFE    OF   CHRISTOPHER    CARSON. 

of  the  present  era.  His  fame  has  long  been  es- 
tablished throughout  this  country  and  Europe, 
as  a  most  skillful  and  intrepid  hunter,  trap- 
per, guide,  and  pilot  of  the  prairies  and  moun- 
tains of  the  far  West,  and  Indian  fighter.  But 
liis  celebrity  in  these  characters  is  far  sur- 
passed by  that  of  his  individual  personal  traits 
of  courage,  coolness,  fidelity,  kindness,  honor, 
and  friendship.  The  theatre  of  his  exploits  is 
extended  throughout  the  whole  western  portion 
of  the  territory  of  the  United  States,  from  tho 
Mississippi  to  the  Pacific,  and  his  associates 
have  been  some  of  the  most  distinguished  men 
of  the  present  age,  to  all  of  whom  he  has  be- 
come an  object  of  affectionate  regard  and 
marked  respect.  The  narrative  which  follows 
will  show  his  titles  to  this  distinction,  so  far  aa 
his  modesty  (for  the  truly  brave  are  always 
modest)  has  permitted  the  world  to  learn  any- 
thing of  his  history. 

It  appears,  from  the  various  declarations  of 
those  most  intimate  with  Christopher  Carson, 
as  well  as  from  a  biography  published  a  num- 
ber of  years  before  his  death,  that  he  was  a 
native  of  Madison  county,  Kentucky,  and  was 
born  on  the  24th  of  December,  1809.  Colonel 
Fremont  in  his  exhaustive  and  interesting  Re- 
port of  his  Exploring  Expedition  to  Oregon 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  15 

and  North  California,  in  1843-44,  says  that 
Carson  is  a  native  of  Boonslick  county,  Mis- 
souri ;  and  from  his  long  association  with  the 
hunter,  he  probably  makes  the  statement  on 
Carson's  own  authority.  The  error,  if  it  is  an 
Frror,  may  have  arisen  from  the  fact  stated  by 
Mr.  Peters,  that  Carson's  father  moved  from 
Kentucky  to  Missouri,  when  Christopher  was 
only  one  year  old.  He  settled  in  what  is  now 
Howard  county,  in  the  central  part  of  Mis- 
souri. 

At  the  time  of  Mr.  Carson's  emigration,  Mis- 
souri was  called  Upper  Louisiana,  being  a  part 
of  the  territory  ceded  to  the  United  States  by 
France  in  1803,  and  it  became  a  separate  State, 
under  the  name  of  Missouri,  in  1821.  When 
Mr.  Carson  removed  his  family  from  Kentucky, 
and  settled  in  the  new  territory,  it  was  a  wild 
region,  naturally  fertile,  thus  favoring  his  views 
as  a  cultivator ;  abounding  in  wild  game,  and 
affording  a  splendid  field  of  enterprise  for  the 
hunter,  but  infested  on  all  sides  with  Indians, 
often  hostile,  and  always  treacherous. 

As  Mi  Carson  united  the  pursuits  of  farmer 
*nd  hunter,  and  lived  in  a  sort  of  block-house 
or  fort,  as  a  precaution  against  the  attacks  of 
the  neighboring  Indians,  his  son  became  accus- 
tomed to  the  presence  of  danger,  and  the  ne- 


16  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER    CARSON. 

cessity  of  earnest  action  and  industry  from 
earliest  childhood. 

At  the  age  of  fifteen,  Kit  Carson  \vas  ap  • 
prenticed  to  Mr.  Workman,  a  saddler.  This 
trade  requiring  close  confinement,  was,  of 
course,  utterly  distasteful  to  a  bey  already  ac- 
customed to  the  use  of  the  rifle,  and  the  stir- 
ring pleasures  of  the  hunter's  life,  and  at  tho 
end  of  two  years,  his  apprenticeship  was  ter- 
minated, for  Kit,  who,  with  his  experience  as 
the  son  of  a  ntted  hunter,  himself  perfectly  fa- 
miliar with  the  rifle,  and,  young  as  he  was, 
acknowledged  to  be  one  of  the  best  and  surest 
shots,  even  in  that  State,  where  such  merit  pre- 
dominated at  that  time  over  almost  every  other, 
could  not  bear  in  patience  the  silent,  sedentary 
monotony  of  his  life,  voluntarily  abandoned  the 
further  pursuit  of  the  trade,  and  sought  the  more 
acti  VQ  employment  of  a  trader's  life. 

His  new  pursuit  was  more  congenial.  He 
joined  an  armed  band  of  traders  in  an  expedi- 
tion to  Santa  Fe,  the  capital  of  JSTew  Mexico. 
This,  at  that  period,  (1826,)  was  rather  a  peril' 
ous  undertaking,  on  account  of  the  Indian 
tribes  who  were  ever  ready  to  attack  a  trading 
caravan,  when  there  was  any  prospect  of  over- 
coming it.  No  attack  was  made  on  the  party, 
however,  and  no  incident  of  importance  oc- 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  17 

curred,  if  wo  except  the  accident  to  one  of  the 
teamsters  who  wounded  himself  by  carelessly 
handling  a  loaded  rifle,  so  as  to  render  it  ne- 
cessary to  amputate  his  arm.  In  this  opera- 
tion Carson  assisted,  the  surgical  instruments 
being  a  razor,  an  old  saw,  and  an  iron  bolt, 
heated  red  hot,  in  order  to  apply  the  actual 
cautery.  Notwithstanding  this  rough  surgery, 
the  man  recovered.* 

In  November  (1826)  the  party  arrived  at 
Santa  Fe,  the  capital,  and  the  largest  town  in 
the  then  Mexican  province  of  New  Mexico. 
This  place  is  situated  on  the  Rio  Chiuto,  or 
Santa  Fe  river,  an  affluent  of  the  Rio  Grande, 
from  which  it  is  distant  about  20  miles.  It 
was  then,  as  now,  the  great  emporium  of  the 
overland  trade,  which,  since  1822,  has  been 
carried  on  with  the  State  of  Missouri.  The 
houses  are  chiefly  built  of  adobes,  or  uaburnt 
bricks,  each  dwelling  forming  a  square,  with  a 
court  in  the  centre  upon  which  the  apartments 
open.  This  mode  of  building,  originally  Moor- 
ish, prevails  in  all  the  colonies  settled  by  the 
Spaniards,  as  well  as  in  Old  Spain,  and  the 
oriental  countries.  It  makes  each  house  a  sort 
of  fortress,  as  General  Taylor's  troops  learned 
to  their  cost  at  the  siege  of  Monterey. 
2  *  Peters. 


18  LIFE   OF    CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

front  entrance  of  each  house  is  large  enough  to 
admit  animals  with  their  packs. 

Santa  Fe  is  well  supplied  with  cool  water 
from  springs  within  its  limits,  and  from  foun- 
tains above  the  city  near  the  neighbouring 
mountain.  The  appearance  of  the  place  is  in- 
viting and  imposing,  as  it  stands  on  a  plateau 
elevated  more  than  7000  feet  above  the  sea, 
and  near  a  snow  capped  mountain,  which  rises 
5000  feet  above  the  level  of  the  town ;  but  the 
population  is  said  to  be  exceedingly  depraved. 
The  present  population  is  about  5000 ;  but  at 
the  time  of  Carson's  first  visit,  it  was  compar- 
atively a  small  town. 

Soon  after  their  arrival  at  Santa  Fe,  Carson 
left  the  trading  band,  which  he  had  joined  when 
he  abandoned  the  saddlery  business,  or  trade, 
as  the  reader  may  choose  to  term  it,  and  of 
which  wre  have  previously  spoken,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  Fernandez  de  Taos.  In  this  placo 
Carson  passed  the  winter  of  1826-7,  at  tho 
house  of  a  retired  mountaineer.  And  it  was 
while  residing  there,  that  he  acquired  that  tho- 
rough familiarity  with  the  Spanish  language, 
which,  in  after  years,  proved  of  such  essential 
service  to  him.  In  the  spring  he  joined  a 
party  bound  for  Missouri,  but  meeting  another 
band  of  Santa  Fe  traders,  he  joined  them  arid 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHEE   CARSON.  JO 

returned  to  that  place.     Here  his  services  be- 
ing no  longer  required  by  the  traders,  he  was 
again   thrown   out  of  employment.     He  now 
engaged  himself  as  teamster  to  a  paity  bound 
to  El  Paso,  a  settlement,  or  more  properly  a 
line  of  settlements,  embracing  a  population  of 
about  5,000,  situated  in  the  rich,  narrow  valley 
which  extends  9  or  10  miles  along  the  right 
bank  of  the  Rio  Grande,  in  the  Mexican  State 
of  Chihuahua,  350  miles  S.  by  W.  of  Santa  Fe. 
Here  the  grape  is  extensively  cultivated,  and 
considerable  quantities  of  light  wine  and  bran- 
dy, (called  by  the  traders  Pass  wine  and  Pass 
branch/,)  are  made.     The  houses  are  like  those 
of  Santa  Fe,  built  of  adobes  with  earthen  floors. 
With  abundance  of  natural   advantages,   the 
people  are  content  to  live  without  those  appli- 
ances of  civilized  life,  considered  indispensable 
by  the  poorest  American  citizens.    Glazed  win- 
dows, chairs,  tables,  knives  and  forks,  and  sim- 
ilar every  day  conveniences  are  unknown  even 
to  the  rich  among  the  people  of  El  Paso.    The 
place  is  the  chief  emporium  of  the  trade  be- 
tween New  Mexico  and  Chihuahua,  and   its 
name,  "  the  passage"  is  derived  from  the  pass- 
age of  the  river  through  a  gorge  or  gap  in  the 
mountain  just  above  the  town. 

On  his  arrival  at  this  place,  young  Carsou 


20  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

might  justly  be  considered  in  view  of  his  age, 
(not  yet  18,)  more  than  an  ordinary  traveler. 
He  had  arrived  at  a  spot  where  everything  was 
strange  to  him.  New  people,  new  customs,  a 
new  climate,  a  wine  country,  a  population  of 
mixed  breed,  half  Indian,  half  Spaniard — ev- 
erything wearing  a  foreign  aspect ;  everything 
totally  different  from  his  home  in  Missouri. 

He  did  not  remain  long  in  this  place,  but  re- 
turned to  Santa  Fe,  whence  he  again  found  his 
way  to  Taos,  where  he  passed  the  winter  in  the 
service  of  Mr.  Ewing  Young,  in  the  humble 
capacity  of  cook ;  this  he  soon  forsook  for 
the  more  pleasant  and  profitable  position  of 
Spanish  interpreter  to  a  trader  named  Tram- 
ell,  with  whom  he,  for  the  second  time,  made 
the  long  journey  to  El  Paso  and  Chihuahua 


CHAPTER  11. 

CHIHUAHUA,  where  Carson  had  now  arrived, 
is  the  capital  of  the  Mexican  province  bearing 
the  same  name.  It  is  situated  on  a  small  trib- 
utary of  the  Conchos  river,  in  the  midst  of  a 
plain.  It  is  regularly  laid  out  and  well  built ; 
the  streets  are  broad  and  some  of  them  paved. 
Like  other  cities  built  by  the  Spaniards,  it  has 
its  great  public  square,  or  Plaza  Major,  on  one 
side  of  which  stands  the  cathedral,  an  impos- 
ing edifice  of  hewn  stone,  built  at  a  cost  of 
$300,000.  It  is  surmounted  with  a  dome  and 
two  towers,  and  has  a  handsome  fagade  with 
statues  of  the  twelve  apostles,  probably  the 
first  statues  that  Carson  had  ever  seen.  Other 
public  buildings  surround  the  square,  and  there 
is  a  fountain  in  the  middle.  The  city  contains 
a  convent  founded  by  the  Jesuits,  and  an  aque- 
duct 3i  miles  long,  supported  by  vast  arches 
and  communicating  with  the  river  Chihuahua. 

It  has  also  its  mint,  and  in  the  nem'hborhooa 

( 21 ) 


22  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOff. 

are  silver  mines  with  furnaces  for  melting  the 
ore.  It  carries  on  an  extensive  trade  with  tho 
United  States  by  means  of  caravans  to  St. 
Louis  in  Missouri,  and  San  Antonio  in  Texas. 
It  was  founded  in  1691,  and  during  the  time 
when  the  silver  mines  were  in  successful  oper- 
ation, it  contained  70,000  inhabitants.  The 
population  at  present  is  14,000. 

As  he  had  come  with  one  of  the  trading  car- 
avans in  the  service  of  Colonel  Tramell  as 
Spanish  interpreter,  we  might  naturally  ex- 
pect that  the  engagement  would  be  a  perma 
nent  one.  But  such  was  not  the  case.  The 
monotony  of  this  life  soon  disgusted  him,  and 
after  weary  weeks  passed  in  comparative  idle- 
ness, he  longed  again  for  the  freedom  of  the 
prairie  and  the  forest,  and  gladly  abandoning 
the  rather  dignified  position  of  interpreter  to 
Colonel  Tramell,  entered  into  the  service  of 
Mr.  Robert  M.  Knight,  in  the  more  humble 
capacity  of  teamster  in  an  expedition  to  the 
copper  mines  on  the  river  Gila,  whence  he 
soon  after  found  his  way  back  to  Taos. 

It  was  during  this  visit  to  Taos  that  Carson 
was  first  enabled  to  gratify  the  desire  which  he 
had  long  entertained  of  becoming  a  regular 
hunter  and  trapper.  A  party  of  trappers  in 
the  service  of  Carson's  old  friend,  Mr.  Ewing 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX.  23 

Young,  had  returned  to  Taos,  having  been 
beaten  off  from  their  hunting  and  trapping 
grounds  by  a  hostile  band  of  Indians.  Mr. 
Young  raised  a  party  of  forty  men,  for  the 
double  purpose  of  chastising  the  Indians,  and 
resuming  the  business  of  trapping,  and  Carson 
joined  them.  The  fact  that  he  was  accepted 
for  this  service  was  a  marked  token  of  esteem 
for  his  valor,  as  well  as  his  skill  in  hunting,  par- 
ties of  this  description  always  avoiding  the  en- 
listment of  inexperienced  recruits,  as  likely  to 
embarrass  their  operations  in  the  field. 

The  ostensible  object  of  the  expedition  was 
to  punish  the  Indians,  but  its  ultimate  purpose 
was  to  trap  for  beavers.  The  Mexicans  by  an 
express  law  had  forbidden  granting  licenses  to 
any  American  parties,  and  in  this  instance  a 
circuitous  route  was  chosen  to  conceal  their 
real  design. 

They  did  not  fall  in  with  the  Indians  of  whom 
they  were  in  pursuit,  until  they  had  reached 
the  head  of  one  of  the  affluents  of  the  Rio  Gila, 
called  Salt  River.  Once  in  presence  of  their 
enemies  they  made  short  work  with  them,  kill- 
ing fifteen  of  their  warriors,  and  putting  the 
whole  band  to  rout.  Such  occurrences  were  by 
no  means  unfrequent,  as  we  shall  see  in  the 
course  of  this  narrative.  A  small  body  of 


24  LIFE    OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

experienced  hunters  and  trappers,  confident  in 
their  superior  skill  and  discipline,  never  hesi- 
tates to  attack  a  greatly  superior  number  of 
Jndians,  and  it  was  a  rare  tMng  that  success 
did  not  attend  their  daring.  The  Indian  is  not 
fond  of  a  "fair  stand  up  fight."  He  prefers 
fjtratagem  and  ambush,  and  reverences  as  a 
great  "  brave,"  the  warrior  who  is  most  success- 
ful in  circumventing  his  enemies,  and  bringing 
off  many  scalps  without  the  loss  of  a  man  ;  but 
when  a  considerable  number  of  Indians  are 
shot  down  in  the  first  onset,  the  remainder  are 
very  apt  to  take  to  flight  in  every  direction. 

We  have  said  that  Carson  joined  the  party 
of  trappers  under  the  command  of  Mr.  Ewing 
Young,  and  it  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  de- 
scribe briefly  the  mode  of  life  which  parties 
in  that  pursuit  have  to  adopt,  with  a  few  re- 
marks upon  the  habits  and  haunts  of  the  ani- 
mal, for  whose  sake  men  were  then  so  willing 
to  risk  their  lives,  and  to  undergo  such  hard- 
ships. 

The  method  of  trapping  for  beaver  formerly 
employed  by  the  trappers  in  the  western  coun- 
try, is  thus  described  by  one  who  has  had  con- 
siderable experience  in  the  art ;  and  we  quote  it 
as  illustrating  the  severe  training  to  which 
Carson  had  voluntarily  subjected  himself: 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  25 

vTo  be  a  successful  trapper,  required  great 
Co.  Aion  as  well  as  a  perfect  knowledge  of  tho 
habits  of  the  animal.  The  residence  of  the 
beaver  was  often  discovered  by  seeing  bits  of 
green  wood,  and  gnawed  branches  of  the  bass- 
wood,  slippery  elm,  and  sycamore,  their  favor- 
ite food,  floating  on  the  water,  or  lodged  on 
the  shores  of  the  stream  below,  as  well  as  by 
their  tracks  or  foot-marks.  These  indications 
were  technically  called  beaver  sign.  They  were 
also  sometimes  discovered  by  their  dams, 
thrown  across  creeks  and  small  sluggish 
streams,  forming  a  pond  in  which  were  erected 
their  habitations. 

"  The  hunter,  as  he  proceeded  to  set  his  traps, 
generally  approached  by  water,  in  his  canoe, 
lie  selected  a  steep,  abrupt  spot  in  the  bank 
of  the  creek,  in  which  a  hole  was  excavated 
with  his  paddle,  as  he  sat  in  the  canoe,  suffi- 
ciently large  to  hold  the  trap,  and  so  deep  as 
to  be  about  three  inches  below  the  surface  of 
the  water,  when  the  jaws  of  the  trap  were  ex- 
panded. About  two  feet  above  the  trap,  a 
stick,  three  or  four  inches  in  length,  was  stuck 
in  the  bank.  In  the  upper  end  of  this,  the 
trapper  excavated  a  small  hole  with  his  knife, 
into  which  he  dropped  a  small  quantity  of  the 
essence,  or  perfume,  which  was  used  to  attract 


26  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

the  beaver  to  the  spot.  This  stick  was  attached 
by  a  string  of  horse  hair  to  the  trap,  and  with 
it  was  pulled  into  the  water  by  the  beaver. 
The  reason  for  this  was,  that  it  might  not  re- 
main after  the  trap  was  sprung,  and  attract 
other  beavers  to  the  spot,  and  thus  prevent 
their  going  to  where  there  was  another  trap 
ready  for  them. 

"  The  scent,  or  essence,  was  made  by  mingling 
the  fresh  castor  of  the  beaver,  with  an  extract 
of  the  bark  of  the  roots  of  the  spice-bush,  and 
kept  in  a  bottle  for  use.  The  making  of  this 
essence  was  held  a  profound  secret,  and  often 
sold  for  a  considerable  sum  to  the  younger 
trappers,  by  the  older  proficients  in  the  mys- 
tery of  beaver  hunting.  Where  they  had  no 
proper  bait,  they  sometimes  made  use  of  the 
fresh  roots  of  sassafras,  or  spice-bush  ;  of  both 
these  the  beaver  was  very  fond. 

"  It  is  said  by  old  trappers  that  they  will 
smell  the  well-prepared  essence  the  distance 
of  a  mile.  Their  sense  of  smell  is  very  acute, 
or  they  would  not  so  readily  detect  the  vicin- 
ity of  man  by  the  smell  of  his  trail.  The 
aroma  of  the  essence  having  attracted  the  ani- 
mal into  the  vicinity  of  the  trap,  in  his  attempt 
to  reach  it,  he  has  to  climb  up  on  to  the  bank 
where  it  is  ^ticking.  This  effort  leads  him  di- 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX.  27 

rectly  over  the  trap,  and  he  is  usually  taken 
by  one  of  the  fore  legs.  The  trap  was  con- 
nected by  a  chain  of  iron,  six  feet  in  length,  to 
a  stout  line  made  of  the  bark  of  the  leather- 
wood,  twisted  into  a  neat  cord,  of  fifteen  or 
twenty  feet.  These  were  usually  prepared  by 
the  trappers  at  home  or  at  their  camps,  for 
cords  of  hemp  or  flax  were  scarce  in  the  days 
of  beaver  hunting.  The  end  of  the  line  was 
secured  to  a  stake  driven  into  the  bed  of  the 
creek  under  water,  and  in  his  struggles  to  es- 
cape, the  beaver  was  usually  drowned  before 
the  arrival  of  the  trapper.  Sometimes,  how- 
ever, he  freed  himself  by  gnawing  off  his  own 
leg,  though  this  was  rarely  the  case.  If  there 
was  a  prospect  of  rain,  or  it  was  raining  at  the 
time  of  setting  the  trap,  a  leaf,  generally  of 
sycamore,  was  placed  over  the  essence  stick,  to 
protect  it  from  the  rain. 

"  The  beaver  being  a  very  sagacious  and  cau- 
tious animal,  it  required  great  care  in  the  trap- 
per in  his  approach  to  its  haunts  to  set  his 
traps,  that  no  scent  of  his  feet  or  hands  was 
left  on  the  earth,  or  bushes  that  he  touched. 
For  this  reason  he  generally  approached  in  a 
canoe.  If  he  had  no  canoe,  it  was  necessary 
to  enter  the  stream  thirty  or  forty  yards  below, 
and  walk  in  the  water  to  the  place,  taking  care  to 


28  LIFE  OF  CHRISTOPHER   CARSOJC. 

return  in  the  same  manner,  lest  the  beaver  should 
take  alarm  and  not  come  near  the  bait,  as  his 
fear  of  the  vicinity  of  man  was  greater  than 
his  sense  of  appetite  for  the  essence.  It  also 
required  caution  in  kindling  a  fire  near  their 
haunts,  as  the  smell  of  smoke  alarmed  them. 
The  firing  of  a  gun,  also,  often  marred  tho 
sport  of  the  trapper,  and  thus  it  will  be  seen 
that  to  make  a  successful  beaver  hunter,  re- 
quired more  qualities  or  natural  gifts  than  falJ 
to  the  share  of  most  meu." 


CHAPTER  III. 

CARSON'S  previous  habits  and  purs  a  its  had 
eminently  qualified  him  to  become  an  iueful 
and  even  a  distinguished  member  of  Mr 
Young's  company  of  trappers.  He  had  lived 
in  the  midst  of  danger  from  his  chiMhoood. 
He  was  familiar  with  the  use  of  arms ;  and 
several  years  of  travel  and  adventure  had  al 
ready  given  him  more  knowledge  of  the  west- 
ern wilds  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  region 
which  wras  the  scene  of  their  present  opera- 
tions, than  was  possessed  by  many  who  had 
seen  more  years  than  himself.  Added  to  this, 
he  had  become  well  acquainted  with  the  pecu- 
liar character  and  habits  of  the  western  In- 
dians, who  were  now  prowling  around  their 
camp,  and  occasionally  stealing  their  traps, 
game,  and  animals. 

The  party  pursued  their  business  success- 
fully for  some  time  on  the  Salt  and  San  Fran- 
cisco rivers,  when  a  part  of  them  return <vl  *& 


30  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON- 

New  Mexico,  and  the  remainder,  eighteen  in 
number,  under  the  lead  of  Mr.  Young,  started 
for  the  valley  of  Sacramento,  California,  and 
it  was  to  this  latter  party  Carson  was  attached. 
Their  route  led  them  through  one  of  the  dry 
deserts  of  the  country,  and  not  only  did  they 
suffer  considerably  from  the  want  of  water, 
but  their  provisions  giving  out,  they  were  often 
.happy  when  they  could  make  a  good  dinner  on 
horse-flesh.  Near  the  Canon  of  the  Colorado 
tney  encountered  a  party  of  Mohave  Indians, 
who  furnished  them  with  some  provisions, 
which  relieved  them  from  the  apprehension 
of  immediate  want. 

The  Mohave  Indians  are  thus  described  by  a 
recent  visiter : 

"  These  Indians  are  probably  in  as  wild  a 
state  of  nature  as  any  tribe  on  American  terri- 
tory. They  have  not  had  sufficient  intercourse 
with  any  civilized  people,  to  acquire  a  know- 
ledge of  their  language,  or  their  vices.  It  was 
said  that  no  white  party  had  ever  before  passed 
through  their  country  without  encountering 
hostility;  nevertheless  they  appear  intelli- 
gent, and  to  have  naturally  amiable  dispo- 
sitions. The  men  are  tall,  erect,  and  well-pro- 
portioned ;  their  features  inclined  to  European 
regularity;  their  eyes  large,  shaded  by  long 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  31 

lashes,  and  surrounded  by  circles  of  blue  pig- 
ment, that  add  to  their  apparent  size.  The 
apron,  or  breech-cloth  for  men,  and  a  short 
petticoat,  made  of  strips  of  the  inner  bark  of 
the  cotton-wood,  for  women,  are  the  only  arti- 
cles of  dress  deemed  indispensable ;  but  many 
of  the  females  have  long  robes,  or  cloaks,  of 
fur.  The  young  girls  wear  beads;  but  when 
married,  their  chins  are  tattooed  with  vertical 
blue  lines,  and  they  wear  a  necklace  with  a 
single  sea-shell  in  front,  curiously  wrought. 
These  shells  are  very  ancient,  and  esteemed  of 
great  value. 

"  From  time  to  time  they  rode  into  the 
camp,  mounted  on  spirited  horses  ;  thoir  bodies 
and  limbs  painted  and  oiled,  so  as  to  present 
the  appearance  of  highly -polished  mahogany. 
The  dandies  paint  their  faces  perfectly  black. 
Warriors  add  a  streak  of  red  across  the  fore- 
head, nose,  and  chin.  Their  ornaments  consist 
of  leathern  bracelets,  adorned  with  bright  but- 
tons, and  worn  on  the  left  arm ;  a  kind  of 
tunic,  made  of  buckskin  fringe,  hanging  from 
the  shoulders ;  beautiful  eagles'  feathers,  called 
'  sormeh'  —  sometimes  white,  sometimes  of  a 
crimson  tint — tied  to  a  lock  of  hair,  and  float- 
ing from  the  top  of  the  head ;  and,  finally, 
strings  of  wampum,  made  of  circular  pieces  of 


32  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX. 

shell,  with  holes  in  the  centre,  by  which  they 
are  strung,  often  to  the  length  of  several  yards, 
and  worn  in  coils  about  the  neck.  These  shell 
beads,  which  they  call  '  pook,'  are  their  sub- 
stitute for  money,  and  the  wealth  of  an  indi- 
vidual is  estimated  by  the  'pook'  cash  ho 
possesses. " 

Soon  after  leaving  the  Mohave  Indians,  Mr. 
Young's  party,  proceeding  westward,  arrived  at 
the  Mission  of  San  Gabriel.  This  is  one  of 
these  extensive  establishments  formed  by  the 
Roman  Catholic  clergy  in  the  early  times  of 
California,  which  form  so  striking  a  feature  in 
the  country.  This  Mission  of  San  Gabriel, 
about  the  time  of  Carson's  visit,  was  in  a  flour- 
ishing condition.  By  statistical  accounts,  in 
1829,  it  had  70,000  head  of  cattle,  1,200  horses, 
3,000  mares,  400  mules,  120  yoke  of  working 
cattle,  and  254,000  sheep.  From  the  vineyards 
of  the  mission  were  made  600  barrels  of  wine, 
the  sale  of  which  produced  an  income  of  up- 
wards of  $12,000.  There  were  between  twenty 
and  thirty  such  missions  in  California  at  that 
time,  of  which  San  Gabriel  was  by  no  means 
the  largest.  They  had  all  been  founded  since 
1769,  when  the  first,  San  Diego,  was  established. 
The  labor  in  these  establishments  was  per- 
formed by  Indian  converts,  who  received  ip 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  33 

return  a  bare  support,  and  a  very  small  modi- 
cum of  what  was  called  religious  instruction. 
Each  mission  had  its  Catholic  priests,  a  few 
Spanish  or  Mexican  soldiers,  and  nundreds, 
sometimes  thousands  of  Indians. 

The  following  interesting  account  of  those  of 
Upper  California,  we  transcribe  from  a  recent 
work  of  high  authority.* 

"  The  missions  of  Upper  California  were  in- 
debted for  their  beginning  and  chief  success  to 
the  subscriptions  which,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
missionary  settlements  of  the  lower  province, 
were  largely  bestowed  by  the  pious  to  promote 
so  grand  a  work  as  turning  a  great  country  to 
the  worship  of  the  true  God.  Such  subscrip- 
tions continued  for  a  long  period,  both  in  Old 
and  New  Spain,  and  were  regularly  remitted 
to  the  City  of  Mexico,  where  they  were  formed 
into  what  was  called  ^Tlie  Pious  Fund  of  Cali- 
fornia.'1 This  fund  was  managed  by  the  con- 
vent of  San  Fernando  and  other  trustees  in 
Mexico,  and  the  proceeds,  together  with  the 
annual  salaries  allowed  by  the  Crown  to  the 
missionaries,  were  transmitted  to  California. 
Meanwhile,  the  Spanish  court  scarcely  interfered 

*  Annals   of  San   Francisco.     By  Frank   Soul6,  John    II 
Gihon,  and  James  Nisbet.     New  York,  D.  Appleton  &  Co., 
1855 
3 


34  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

with  the  temporal  government  of  the  country. 
It  was  true  that  some  of  the  ordinary  civil  offi- 
ces and  establishments  were  kept  up ;  but  this 
was  only  in  name,  and  on  too  small  a  scale  to 
be  of  any  practical  importance.  A  command- 
anto-general  was  appointed  by  the  Crown  to 
command  the  garrisons  of  the  presidios  ;  but  as 
these  were  originally  established  solely  to  pro- 
tect the  missions  from  the  dreaded  violence  of 
hostile  Indians,  and  to  lend  them,  when  neces- 
sary, the  carnal  arm  of  offence,  he  was  not  al- 
lowed to  interfere  in  the  temporal  rule  of  the 
Fathers.  He  resided  at  Monterey,  and  his 
annual  salary  was  four  thousand  dollars. 

"  In  every  sense  of  the  word,  then,  these 
monks  were  practically  the  sovereign  rulers  of 
California — passing  laws  aifecting  not  only 
property,  but  even  life  and  death — declaring 
peace  and  war  against  their  Indian  neighbors 
— regulating,  receiving,  and  spending  the  fi- 
nances at  discretion — and,  in  addition,  drawing 
large  annual  subsidies  not  only  from  the  pious 
among  the  faithful  over  all  Christendom,  but 
even  from  the  Spanish  monarchy  itself,  almost 
as  a  tribute  to  their  being  a  superior  state. 
This  surely  was  the  golden  age  of  the  missions 
. — a  contented,  peaceful,  believing  people,  abun- 
dant wealth  for  all  their  wants,  despotic  will, 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  35 

and  no  responsibility  but  to  their  own  con- 
sciences and  heaven!  Their  horn  was  filled 
to  overflowing ;  but  soon  an  invisible  and  mer- 
ciless hand  seized  it,  and  slowly  and  linger- 
ingly,  as  if  in  malicious  sport,  turned  it  over, 
and  spilled  the  nectar  of  their  life  upon  the 
ivastes  of  mankind,  from  whence  it  can  never 
again  be  collected.  The  golden  age  of  another 
race  has  now  dawned,  and  with  it  the  real 
prosperity  of  the  country. 

"The  missions  were  originally  formed  on 
the  same  general  plan,  and  they  were  planted 
at  such  distances  from  each  other  as  to  allow 
abundant  room  for  subsequent  development, 
They  were  either  established  on  the  sea-coast, 
or  a  few  miles  inland.  Twenty  or  thirty  miles 
indeed  seems  all  the  distance  the  missionaries 
had  proceeded  into  the  interior ;  beyond  which 
narrow  belt  the  country  was  unexplored  and 
unknown.  Each  mission  had  a  considerable 
piece  of  the  best  land  in  the  neighborhood  set 
aside  for  its  agricultural  and  pastoral  purposes, 
which  was  commonly  about  fifteen  miles  square. 
But  besides  this  selected  territory,  there  was 
generally  much  more  vacant  land  lying  be- 
tween the  boundaries  of  the  missions,  and 
which,  as  the  increase  of  their  stocks  required 
more  space  for  grazing,  was  gradually  occupied 


36  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

by  the  flocks  and  herds  of  the  Fathers,  nearest 
to  whose  mission  lay  the  previously  unoccu- 
pied district.  Over  these  bounds  the  Fathers 
conducted  all  the  operations  of  a  gigantic  farm. 
Their  cattle  generally  numbered  from  ten 
thousand  to  twenty  thousan^  and  their  sheep 
were  nearly  as  numerous — though  some  mis- 
sions had  upwards  of  thrice  these  numbers — 
which  fed  over  perhaps  a  hundred  thousand 
acres  of  fertile  land. 

"  Near  the  centre  of  such  farms  were  placed 
the  mission  buildings.  These  consisted  of  the 
church — which  was  either  built  of  stone,  if  that 
material  could  be  procured  in  the  vicinity,  or 
of  adobes,  which  are  bricks  dried  in  the  sun  ; 
and  was  as  substantial,  large,  and  richly  deco- 
rated an  erection  as  the  means  of  the  mission 
would  permit,  or  the  skill  and  strength  of  their 
servants  could  construct.  In  the  interior,  pic- 
tures and  hangings  decorated  the  walls ;  while 
the  altars  were  ornamented  with  marble  pillars 
of  various  colors,  and  upon  and  near  them 
stood  various  articles  of  massy  gold  and  silver 
plate.  A  profusion  of  gilding  and  tawdry 
sparkling  objects  caught  and  pleased  the  eye 
of  the  simple  congregations.  Around,  or  be- 
side the  church,  and  often  in  the  form  of  a 
square,  were  grouped  the  habitations  of  the 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER    CARSON.  3' 

s  and  their  household  servants,  and  the 
various  granaries  and  workshops  of  the  peo- 
ple; while,  at  the  distance  of  one  or  two  hun- 
dred yards,  stood  the  huts  of  the  Indians.  The 
former  buildings  were  constructed  of  adobes, 
and  covered  with  brick  tiles,  frail  and  misera- 
ble materials  at  the  best.  The  huts  of  the  In- 
dians were  occasionally  made  of  the  same 
materials,  but  more  commonly  were  formed 
only  of  a  few  rough  poles,  stuck  in  the  ground, 
with  the  points  bending  towards  the  centre 
like  a  cone,  and  were  covered  with  reeds  and 
grass.  An  adobe  wall  of  considerable  height 
sometimes  inclosed  the  whole  village.  The 
direction  of  the  affairs  of  the  settlement  was  in 
the  hands  of  one  of  the  Fathers,  originally 
called  a  president,  but  afterwards  a  prefect; 
and  each  prefect  was  independent  in  his  own 
mission,  and  practically  supreme  in  all  its  tem- 
poral, and  nearly  in  all  its  spiritual  matters, 
to  any  human  authority. 

"  Thus  the  Fathers  might  be  considered  to 
have  lived  something  in  the  style  of  the  patri- 
archs of  the  days  of  Job  and  Abraham.  They 
indeed  were  generally  ignorant  and  unlettered 
men,  knowing  little  more  than  the  mechanical 
rites  of  their  church,  and  what  else  their  man- 
uals of  devotion  and  the  treasuries  of  the  lives 


38  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.      . 

nf  tlifl  saints  taught  them;  but  they  seem  to 
have  been  personally  devout,  self-denying,  and 
beneficent  in  their  own  simple  way.  They 
thought  they  did  God  service,  and  perhaps 
much  more  the  Indians  themselves,  in  catch- 
ing, taming,  and  converting  them  to  Christian- 
ity. That  was  their  vocation  in  the  world,  and 
they  faithfully  obeyed  its  calls  of  duty.  To- 
wards the  converts  and  actually  domesticated 
servants,  they  always  showed  such  an  affec- 
tionate kindness  as  a  father  pays  to  the  young- 
est and  most  helpless  of  his  family.  The 
herds  and  flocks  of  the  Fathers  roamed  undis- 
turbed over  numberless  hills  and  valleys. 
Their  servants  or  slaves  were  true  born  chil- 
dren of  the  house,  who  laboured  lightly  and 
pleasantly,  and  had  no  sense  of  freedom  nor 
desire  for  change.  A  rude  but  bounteous  hos- 
pitality marked  the  master's  reception  of  the 
solitary  wayfarer,  as  he  traveled  from  mission 
to  mission,  perhaps  bearing  some  scanty  newa 
from  the  outer  world,  all  the  more  welcome 
that  the  Fathers  knew  little  of  the  subject,  arid 
could  not  be  affected  by  the  events  and  dan- 
gers of  distant  societies.  All  these  things 
have  now  passed  away.  The  churches  have 
fallen  into  decay,  deserted  by  the  old  worship- 
ers, and  poverty-stricken ;  the  adobe  houses 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX.  39 

of  the  Fathers  are  in  ruins — and  there  is 
scarcely  any  trace  left  of  the  slightly  erected 
huts  of  the  Indians,  who  themselves  have  de- 
serted their  old  hearths  and  altars,  and  are 
silently,  though  rapidly,  disappearing  from  the 
land.  But  the  memory  of  the  patriarchal 
times,  for  they  were  only  as  yesterday,  still 
remains  fresh  in  the  minds  of  the  early  white 
settlers." 

Mr.  Young's  party  did  not  remain  long  to 
enjoy  the  sumptuous  fare  at  the  Mission  of  San 
Gabriel ;  but  pushed  on  to  that  of  San  Fer- 
nando, and  thence  to  the  river  and  fertile  val- 
ley of  Sacramento.  In  this  neighborhood  they 
trapped  for  beaver,  and  Carson  displayed  his 
activity  and  skill  as  a  hunter  of  deer,  elk,  and 
antelope. 


CHAPTER    IV 

ONLY  familiarity  with  one  of  like  character, 
by  actually  seeing  it,  can  give  a  just  idea  of  the 
country  through  which  they  were  traveling. 
Livingston's  descriptions  of  localities  in  Cen- 
tral Africa  might  be  transferred  to  our  pages 
verbatim,  to  give  a  word-painting  of  the  desicca- 
ted deserts  of  what  is  now  Xew  Mexico  and  Ari- 
zona. Carson's  curiosity,  as  well  as  care  to  pre- 
serve the  knowledge  for  future  use,  led  him  to 
note  in  memory,  every  feature  of  the  wild  land- 
scape, its  mountain  chains,  its  desert  prairies, 
with  only  clumps  of  the  poor  artemisia  for  ve- 
getation, its  rivers,  and  the  oases  upon  their 
banks,  where  there  were  bottom-lands — nor 
were  beaver  found  elsewhere — with  its  river 
beds  whose  streams  had  found  a  passage  be- 
neath the  surface  of  the  earth,  and  each  other 
general  feature  that  would  attract  the  eye  of 
the  natural,  rather  than  the  scientific  ob- 
server. 

(40) 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX.  41 

In  our  day,  the  note  book  of  the  pioneer 
furnishing  the  data,  the  traveler  carries  a 
guide-  book  to  direct  his  course  from  point  to 
point,  upon  a  well  trodden  road,  to  tluso 
places  where  grass  and  water  will  furnish  re- 
freshment for  his  animals,  while  he  regales 
himself,  not  upon  the  spare-rib  of  a  starved 
mule,  killed  because  it  could  go  no  longer,  but 
upon  a  variety  of  good  things  from  the  well 
stocked  larder  of  the  pouches  of  the  saddle- 
bags his  pack  mule  carries,  or  the  provision 
box  of  his  wagon.  Or,  instead  of  the  meat-diet 
of  the  trapper,  when  he  has  been  in  luck  in  a 
fertile  locality,  the  traveler — not  trapper — of 
to-day,  perhaps  has  shot  a  prairie  chicken,  and 
prepares  his  dinner  by  making  a  stew  of  it, 
which  he  consumes  with  hard  bread  he  has 
purchased  at  a  station  not  ten  miles  away. 

Familiarity  with  the  features  of  the  country 
does  not  restore  the  experience  of  the  pioneer 
of  these  wilds.  The  Indian,  now,  is  advised  by 
authority  he  seldom  dares  defy,  to  keep  off  the 
roads  of  the  emigrants ;  and  seldom  does  a 
party  leave  the  road  for  any  great  distance ; 
nor  are  these  roads  infrequent,  but  the  country 
is  intersected  with  them,  and  the  guide-books 
protect  against  mistake  in  taking  the  wrong  di 
rection.  The  test  of  character,  however,  with 


42  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

the  trappers,  was  their  ability  to  endure  hard- 
ships when  they  had  to  be  encountered ;  and 
to  guard  against  them,  when  they  could  bo 
avoided,  by  a  wise  foresight  in  taking  advan- 
tage of  every  favor  of  fortune,  and  turning 
each  freak  or  whim  of  the  wily  dame  to  best 
account. 

Carson  was  delighted  with  California  from 
the  first,  and  realizing  intense  satisfaction  in 
his  position,  yet  a  youth,  on  terms  of  easy  fa- 
miliarity with  the  other  seventeen  old  trappers, 
especially  selected  for  this  expedition,  circum- 
stances conspired  to  call  into  play  all  the  activ- 
ities of  his  nature,  and  nothing  intruded  to 
prevent  his  resigning  himself  to  the  impulses 
of  the  time,  and  making  the  most  of  every  oc- 
casion that  offered. 

He  had  the  confidence  of  Capt.  Young  and 
of  all  his  men,  who  permitted  him  to  do  pre- 
cisely as  he  chose,  for  they  found  him  not  only 
intending  always  to  do  what  was  best,  but  pos- 
sessed of  foresight  to  know  always  "  just  the 
things  that  ought  to  be  done,"  almost  without 
effort,  as  it  seemed  to  them. 

After  leaving  the  Mission  of  San  Fernando, 
Young's  party  trapped  upon  the  San  Joaquim, 
but  they  found  that  another  party  of  trappers 
had  been  there  before  them,  employed  by  the 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  43 

Hudson  Bay  Company,  in  Oregon.  There  was 
however,  room  for  them  both,  and  they  trapped 
near  each  other  for  weeks.  The  friendly  inter- 
course kept  up  between  the  two  parties,  was 
not  only  one  of  pleasant  interchange  of  social 
kindness,  but  in  one  sense  was  essentially  use- 
ful to  Kit,  who  lost  no  opportunity  of  improv- 
ing himself  in  the  profession  (for  in  those  days 
trapping  was  a  profession)  which  he  had  em- 
braced, and  he  had  the  benefit  of  the  experi- 
ence by  way  of  example,  not  only  of  his  own 
companions,  but  of  those  who  were  connected 
with  the  greatest  and  most  influential  company 
then  in  existence  on  this  Continent.  It  is 
hardly  necessary  to  say  that  he  lost  no  oppor- 
tunity of  acquiring  information,  and  it  is  quite 
probable  that  he  would,  if  called  on,  allow  that 
the  experience  acquired  on  this  expedition  wras 
among  the  most  valuable  of  any  which  he  had 
previously  gained. 

When  Mr.  Young  went  to  the  Sacramento, 
he  separated  from  the  Hudson  Bay  party. 
The  beautiful  Sacramento,  as  its  waters  glided 
toward  the  chain  of  bays  that  take  it  to  the 
ocean  through  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco  out 
at  the  Golden  gate,  had  not  .the  aspect  of  the 
eastern  river's  immediate  tributaries  of  the 
Missouri,  Its  waters  then  were  clear  as  crystal. 


44  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

and  the  salmon  floated  beneath,  glistening  in 
the  sunlight,  as  the  canoe  glided  through  them. 

The  very  air  of  this  valley  is  luxurious ;  and 
in  speaking  of  it,  we  will  include  the  valley  of 
the  San  Joaquim,  for  both  these  streams  run  par- 
allel with  the  coast,  the  Sacramento  from  the 
north,  the  San  Joaquim  from  the  south,  and 
both  unite  at  the  head  of  the  chain  of  bays 
which  pour  their  waters  into  the  Pacific. 

The  Sacramento  drains  nearly  three  hun- 
dred miles  of  latitude,  and  the  San  Joaquim  an 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  the  country  bounded 
by  the  Sierra  Nevada  (snow  mountains)  on 
the  east,  and  the  coast  range  on  the  west,  the 
whole  forming  a  great  basin,  with  the  moun- 
tains depressed  on  the  north  and  south,  but 
with  no  outlet  except  through  the  Golden  gate 


CHAPTER  V. 

.No  climate  could  be  more  congenial  to  a 
full  flow  of  animal  spirits,  than  this  region, 
where,  upon  the  vegetation  of  the  rich  black 
soil — often  twenty  feet  deep — game  of  the 
better  class  in  great  abundance  found  support. 
Deer  in  no  part  of  the  world  was  ever  more 
plenty,  and  elk  and  antelope  bounded  through 
the  old  oak  groves,  as  they  may  have  done  in 
Eden. 

Carson  had  many  opportunities  of  exploring 
the  country,  which  he  gladly  embraced,  and 
thus  became  familiar  with  many  localities,  the 
knowledge  of  which  was  in  after  years  of  such 
essential  service  to  him  and  others. 

There  were  many  large  tribes   of  Indians, 
scattered  through  this  country,  in  these  and 
imaller  valleys,  beside  those  which  the   mis- 
sions had  attached  to  them.     We  know  not 
that  any  record  has  been  kept  of  the  names  of 

these  tribes  and  their  numbers ;  but  since  the 

(45) 


46  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX. 

white  men  intruded,  they  have  melted  &  way  as 
did  earlier  those  east  of  the  Mississippi. 

These  Indians  were  all  of  the  variety  called 
Diggers,  but  in  better  condition  than  we  see 
them,  since  the  small  remnants  of  large  tribes 
have  adopted  the  vices  of  the  white  men,  and 
learned  improvidence,  by  sometimes  having 
plenty  without  much  toil;  so  that  they  can 
say  to-day,  "  No  deer,  no  acorn ;  white  man 
come !  poor  Indian  hungry,"  as  the  happiest 
style  of  begging. 

A  brief  description  of  the  Tlamath  01  Dig- 
ger Indians,  and  their  mode  of  living,  may  not 
now  be  out  of  place,  and  having  been  visited 
by  Carson  in  his  earlier  years,  may  not  be  un- 
interesting. We  quote  from  the  language  of 
one  who  has  paid  a  recent  visit  to  the  tribe : 

"  There  were  a  dozen  wigwams  for  the  nearly 
hundred  that  composed  the  tribe,'  one  of  which 
was  much  larger  than  the  rest,  and  in  the  centre 
of  the  group,  the  temple,  or  "  medicine  lodge." 
As  we  entered,  the  bones  of  game  consumed, 
.and  other  offal  lay  about ;  and  to  our  inquiry 
why  they  did  not  clear  away  and  be  more  tidy, 
only  a  grunt  was  returned.  The  men  had 
gone  fishing,  said  the  Indian  woman  we  ad- 
dressed, so  we  saw  but  two  or  three ;  but  in 
one  wigwam  which  we  entered  there  were  four- 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOrHER   CARSON.  47 

teen  with  ourselves — the  rest,  besides  the  boy 
\vho  went  before  to  announce  us,  were  women 
and  children. 

"We  ascended  a  mound  of  earth,  as  it 
seemed,  about  six  feet  high,  and  through  a  cir- 
cular hole,  perhaps  two  feet  and  a  half  in  dia- 
meter, descended  a  perpendicular  ladder  about 
ten  feet.  This  opening,  through  which  we  en- 
tered, performed  the  double  office  of  door  and 
window  to.  the  space  below,  which  was  cir- 
cular, about  fourteen  feet  across,  with  arrange- 
ments for  sleeping,  like  berths  in  a  steamboat, 
one  over  another,  on  two  sides,  suspended  by- 
tying  with  bark  a  rough  stick  to  upright  posts, 
which  served  to  hold  the  sticks  that  sustained 
the  roof.  The  whole  was  substantially  built, 
the  covering  being  the  earth  which  was  taken 
from  the  spot  beneath,  heaped  upon  a  layer  of 
rushes,  the  floor  of  the  wigwam  being  four 
feet  below  the  surface  of  the  ground.  On  the  two 
sides  of  the  wigwam  not  occupied  by  the  berths, 
were  barrels  filled  with  fish — dried  salmon, 
seeds,  acorns,  and  roots. 

"  On  hooks  from  the  rush  lined  ceiling  hung 
bags  and  baskets,  containing  such  luxuries  as 
dried  grasshoppers  and  berries.  About  the 
berths  hung  deer  skins  and  some  skins  of  other 
game,  seemingly  prepared  for  wear.  There 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON 

was  no  appearance  of  other  dress,  yet  in 
berths  sat  three  women,  braiding  strips  of  deer 
skin,  and  attaching  the  braids  to  a  string,  in 
the  form  of  long  fringe.  Each  of  the  women 
wore  an  apron  of  this  kind  about  the  waist, 
and  only  the  dress  of  nature  beside.  The 
children  were  dressed  'inpuris  naturalibus.1 

"  After  stopping  ten  minutes,  we  were  glad  to 
ascend  to  the  open  air,  for  a  sickness  came  over 
us  from  which  we  did  not  recover  for  several 
hours.  How  human  beings  live  in  such  an  at- 
mosphere we  cannot  tell,  but  this  is  the  way 
they  habitate. 

"  When  the  grasshoppers  were  abundant,  for 
this  insect  is  one  of  the  luxuries  of  the  Diggers, 
they  scoured  the  valley,  gathering  them  in  im- 
mense quantities.  This  is  done  by  first  dig- 
ging holes  or  pits  in  the  ground  at  the  spot 
chosen.  Then  the  whole  party  of  Indians, 
each  with  the  leafy  branch  of  a  tree,  form  a 
circle  about  it  and  drive  in  the  grasshoppers 
till  they  heap  them  upon  each  other  in  the 
pits :  water  is  then  poured  in  to  drown  them. 
Their  booty  gathered,  they  proceed  to  another 
place  and  perform  the  same  operation.  These 
insects  are  prepared  for  food  by  kindling  a  firo 
in  one  of  these  pits,  and  when  it  is  heated,  fill- 
ing it  with  them  and  covering  it  with  a  heated 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON".  49 

stone,  where  they  are  left  to  bake.  They  arc 
now  ready  for  use  at  any  time,  and  eaten  with 
gusto,  or  they  are  powdered,  and  mixed  with 
the  acorn  meal  in  a  kind  of  bread,  which  is 
baked  in  the  ashes. 

To  return  to  the  camp  of  trappers,  and  wit- 
ness one  day's  duties,  may  be  gratifying  to  the 
reader.  With  early  dawiuthe  traps  are  visited, 
and  the  beaver  secured.  The  traps  are  re-ad- 
justed, and  the  game  brought  into  camp — or 
left  to  be  skinned  where  it  is  if  the  camp  is  far 
away.  Meantime  breakfast  has  been  prepared 
by  one  of  the  party ;  others  have  looked  after 
the  animals,  relieving  the  watch  which  is  still 
kept  up  lest  a  stampede  occur  while  all  are 
sleeping.  Carson  could  not  be  cook  for  the 
party  constantly,  but  takes  his  turn  with  the 
rest,  and  by  the  nice  browning  of  his  steak, 
and  the  delicacy  of  his  acorn  coffee,  and  the  ad- 
dition to  their  meal  of  roasted  kamas  root,  he 
proves  the  value  of  the  apprenticeship  of  his 
earlier  years.  He  has  a  dish  of  berries,  too, 
and  surprises  the  party  with  this  tempting 
dessert,  as  weil  as  with  the  information  that 
in  his  rambles  the  day  before  he  had  dined 
with  an  old  Oalifornian,  with  his  wife  and 

daughters,  and  had  the   promise  from  thorn 
"4 


50  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

of  a  cow,  if  he  would  call  for  it  on  the  mor- 
row. 

Breakfast  over,  and  the  remains  put  by  for 
lunch  at  noon,  Carson  mounts  his  pony,  and 
riding  a  few  miles  down  the  bank  swims  the 
river,  and  dashing  out  among  the  hills  with  a 
high  round  mountain  peak  in  view,  still  miles 
away,  is  lost  among  the  oak  groves  for  a  score 
of  miles,  and  at  length  emerges  on  Susan  bay, 
and  doffs  his  hat  and  makes  his  bow  to  the 
young  Senorita  who  greets  him  at  the  door  with 
a  smile  of  welcome.  The  sun  is  low ;  dinner 
waits — hot  bread,  and  butter,  and  cheese,  and 
coffee  with  sugar,  are  added  to  the  venison 
and  beef,  and  Irish  and  sweet  potatoes.  Amid 
the  civilities  and  pleasant  chat,  the  hour  passes 
happily,  and  Carson  proposes  returning  to  his 
party. 

The  ladies  will  not  allow  him  to  depart 
Will  ho  not  accept  the  hospitality  of  their 
mansion  for  a  single  night  ?  They  do  not  urge 
after  one  refusal,  because  his  every  feature  in- 
dicates the  decision  of  his  character.  He  must 
go.  His  horse  is  brought — a  young  and  beau- 
tiful animal — and  the  cow,  this  object  of  his 
second  journey  thither,  given  him  in  charge  as 
he  mounts,  with  a  rope  attached  to  her  horns, 
by  which  to  lead  her.  The  full  moon  is  rising, 


LIFE   OF    CHRISTOPHER   C*  RSON.  51 

on  which  he  had  calculated,  as  he  told  his  host- 
esses, and  with  words  of  pleasant  compliment, 
with  which  the  Spanish  language  so  much  more 
than  ours  abounds,  and  a  Buenos  noclies,  sevwr^ 
from  his  entertainers,  and  Buenos  noclies,  senor- 
itas,  in  return,  he  slowly  winds  his  silent  way 
on  and  on  through  the  oak  groves  and  the 
wild  oats  covering  the  hill-sides,  hearing  only 
the  song  of  the  owl  and  the  whippoorwill,  the 
music  of  the  insects,  and  the  whispering  leaves, 
but  with  ear  ever  open  to  detect  the  stealthy 
tread  of  the  monster  of  the  wood  and  hills — the 
grizzly  bear.  Off  on  the  distant  hill  he  sees  one, 
with  a  cub  following  her;  but  game  is  plenty, 
and  deer  is  good  enough  food  for  her.  On,  on  ho 
goes  at  slow  pace,  for  he  has  a  delicate  charge, 
and  already  is  she  restive  from  very  weariness, 
though  his  pace  is  slow. 

Half  his  journey  is  completed  as  the  gray 
of  dawn  and  the  twinkle  of  the  star  of  morning 
relieves  the  tedium  and  anxiety  of  his  loneli- 
ness. He  has  made  the  circuit  of  the  bay. 
The  river  is  before  him  as  he  descends  the  hill 
which  he  has  ascended  for  observation.  Morn- 
ing broadens.  The  flowers  glow  with  varie- 
gated beauty  as  he  tramples  them,  and  in  some 
patches  the  odor  of  the  crushed  dewy  beauties 
fills  the  air  to  satiety. 


52  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

A  few  miles  more  of  travel  and  he  crosses 
the  river,  and  is  again  in  the  river-bottom 
where  the  party  have  taken  the  beaver.  lie 
stops  at  an  Indian  village,  and  dines  from  tho 
liberal  haunch  and  the  acorn  bread  the  chief 
presents,  and  with  good  feelings  displayed  on 
either  side,  takes  in  his  arms  a  young  papoose, 
the  digger's  picaninny,  and  salutes  it  with  a 
kiss.  Kit  leaves  there  a  trifling,  but  to  them, 
valuable  memorial  of  his  visit,  mounts  his  sor- 
rel which  is  restive  under  the  slow  gait  to 
which  he  has  restrained  him,  takes  the  rope 
again  which  secures  his  treasure,  the  cow,  and 
plods  towards  home  at  evening.  The  camp  tire 
smokes  in  the  distance,  while  the  few  horses 
that  remain  are  staked  about,  and  the  sentinel 
paces  up  and  down  to  keep  off  the  drowsiness 
indeed  by  fatigue  and  a  hearty  meat  supper. 
The  eastern  and  the  western  horizon  are 
lighte  1  with  pale  silver  by  the  departing  god  of 
day,  a  *d  the  approaching  goddess  of  the  night, 
nnd  '„><}  still  river  divides  the  plain,  bounded 
only  !?/  the  horizon,  except  he  look  behind 
him.  Such  is  the  scene  as,  approaching,  the 
sentinel  raises  his  gun  and  gives  the  chal- 
lenge to  halt.  But  the  rest  of  the  camp 
are  not  yet  sleeping,  and  a  dozen  voices  shout 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOff.  53 

in  the  still  evening  a  glad  welcome  to  Car- 
son, for  whom  they  were  not  concerned, 
for  they  well  knew  there  was  not  one  of 
the  party  so  well  able  to  take  care  of  himself 
a*  be 


CHAPTER  VI. 

PETEHS,  in  his  "  Life  of  Carson,"  tells  the 
story  of  two  expeditions  which  Carson  led 
against  the  Indians,  while  they  trapped  upon 
the  Sacramento,  which  give  proof  of  his  cour- 
age, and  thorough  education  in  the  art  of  In- 
dian warfare,  which  had  become  a  necessity  to 
the  wyageur  on  the  plains,  and  in  the  moun- 
tains of  the  western  wilds.  With  his  quick 
discrimination  of  character,  and  familiarity 
with  the  habits  of  the  race,  he  could  not  but 
know  the  diggers  were  less  bold  than  the 
Apaches  and  Camanches,  with  whom  he  was 
before  familiar. 

The  Indians  at  the  Mission  San  Gabriel, 
were  restive  under  coerced  labor,  and  forty  of 
them  made  their  escape  to  a  tribe  not  far  awa\ 

The  mission  demanded  the  return  of  these 
fugitives,  and  being  refused,  gave  battle  to  the 
neighboring  tribe,  but  were  defeated.  The  Padre 
sent  to  the  trappers  for  assistance  to  compel  the 

Indians  not  to  harbor  their  people.     Carson 
(54) 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  55 

and  eleven  of  his  companions  volunteered  to 
aid  the  mission,  and  the  attack  upon  the  In- 
dian village  resulted  in  the  destruction  of  a 
third  of  its  inhabitants,  and  compelled  them 
to  submission.  Capt.  Young  found  at  this 
mission  a  trader  to  Kke  his  furs,  and  from 
them  purchased  a  drove  of  horses.  Directly 
after  his  return,  a  party  of  Indians  contrived 
to  drive  away  sixty  horses  from  the  trappers, 
while  the  sentinel  slept  at  night.  Carson  with 
twelve  men  were  sent  in  pursuit.  It  was  not 
difficult  to  follow  the  fresh  trail  of  so  large  a 
drove,  yet  he  pursued  them  a  hundred  miles, 
and  into  the  mountains,  before  coming  up  with 
them.  The  Indians  supposed  themselves  too 
far  away  to  be  followed,  and  were  feasting  on 
the  flesh  of  the  stolen  horses  they  had  slaugh- 
tered, Carson's  party  arranged  themselves 
silently  and  without  being  seen,  and  rushing 
upon  the  Indian  camp,  killed  eight  men,  and 
scattered  the  remainder  in  every  direction. 
The  horses  were  recovered,  except  the  six 
killed,  and  partly  consumed,  and  with  three 
Indian  children  left  in  camp,  they  returned  to 
the  joyful  greetings  of  their  friends. 

Early  in  the  autumn  of  1829,  Mr.  Young 
and  his  party  of  trappers  set  out  on  their  re- 
turn home.  On  their  route  they  visited  Lo* 


5G  LIFE   OF   CHftlSTOPHEK  CAKS05. 

Angelos,  formerly  called  Pueblo  de  los  AA 
gelos,  "  the  city  of  the  angels,"  a  name  which 
it  received  on  account  of  the  exceedingly  genial 
climate,  and  the  beauty  of  the  surrounding 
country.  It  is  situated  on  a  small  river  of  the 
same  name,  30  miles  ^lom  its  mouth,  and  on 
the  road  between  the  cities  of  San  Jose  and 
San  Diego.  It  is  about  three  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  east  of  San  Francisco,  and  a  hun- 
dred miles  to  the  south. 

Although  to  very  many  thousands  of  readers, 
anything  on  the  subject  of  the  climate  of  Cali- 
fornia may  seem  superfluous,  yet  there  are  as 
many  thousands  who  have  no  really  distinct 
idea  of  the  country  or  the  climate,  and  wre 
therefore  quote  from  Rev.  Dr.  Bushnell,  whose 
article  on  those  topics  in  the  "New  Eng- 
lander,"  in  1858,  attracted  justly  such  univer- 
sal attention : 

"  The  first  and  most  difficult  thing  to  appre- 
hend respecting  California  is  the  climate,  upon 
which,  of  course,  depend  the  advantages  of 
health  and  physical  development,  the  growths 
and  their  conditions  and  kinds,  and  the  modus 
operandi,  or  general  cast,  of  the  seasons.  But 
this,  again,  is  scarcely  possible,  without  dis- 
missing, first  of  all,  the  word  climate,  and  sub- 
stituting the  plural,  climates.  For  it  cannot  be 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CAUSOX.  57 

paid  of  California,  as  of  New  England,  or  the 
Middle  States,  that  it  has  a  climate.  On  the 
contrary,  it  has  a  great  multitude,  curiously 
pitched  together,  at  short  distances,  one  from 
another,  defying  too,  not  seldom,  our  most  ac- 
cepted notions  of  the  effects  of  latitude  and  al- 
titude and  the  defences  of  mountain  ranges. 
The  only  way,  therefore,  is  to  dismiss  general- 
ities, cease  to  look  for  a  climate,  and  find,  if  we 
can,  by  what  process  the  combinations  and  va- 
rieties are  made  ;  for  when  we  get  hold  of  the 
manner  and  going  on  of  causes,  all  the  varie- 
ties are  easily  reducible. 

"  To  make  this  matter  intelligible,  conceive 
that  Middle  California,  the  region  of  which  we 
now  speak,  lying  between  the  head  waters  of 
the  two  great  rivers,  and  about  four  hundred 
and  fifty  or  five  hundred  miles  long  from 
north  to  south,  is  divided  lengthwise,  parallel 
to  the  coast,  into  three  strips,  or  ribands  of 
about  equal  width.  First,  the  coast-wise  re- 
gion, comprising  two,  three,  and  sometimes 
four  parallel  tiers  of  mountains  from  five  hun- 
dred to  four  thousand,  five  thousand,  or  even 
ten  thousand  feet  high.  Next,  advancing  in- 
ward, we  have  a  middle  strip,  from  fifty  to  sev- 
enty miles  wide,  of  almost  dead  plain,  which  is 
called  the  great  valley ;  dbSvn  the  scarcely  per- 


68  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON". 

ceptible  slopes  of  which,  from  north  to  south, 
and  south  to  north,  run  the  two  great  rivers, 
the  Sacramento  and  the  San  Joaquim,  to  join 
their  waters  at  the  middle  of  the  basin  and 
pass  off  to  the  sea.  The  third  long  strip,  or 
riband,  is  the  slope  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  chain, 
which  bounds  the  great  valley  on  the  east,  and 
contains  in  its  foot-hills,  or  rather  in  its  lower 
half,  all  the  gold  mines.  The  upper  half  is,  to 
a  great  extent,  bare  granite  rock,  and  is  crowned 
at  the  summit,  with  snow,  about  eight  months 
of  the  year. 

"  Now  the  climate  of  these  parallel  strips 
will  be  different  almost  of  course^  and  subordi- 
nate, local  differences,  quite  as  remarkable,  will 
result  from  subordinate  features  in  the  local 
configurations,  particularly  of  the  seaward  strip 
or  portion.  For  all  the  varieties  of  climate, 
distinct  as  they  become,  are  made  by  variations 
wrought  in  the  rates  of  motion,  the  courses, 
the  temperature,  and  the  dry  ness  of  a  single 
wind ;  viz.,  the  trade  wrind  of  the  summer 
months,  which  blows  directly  inward  all  the 
time,  only  with  much  greater  power  during 
that  part  of  the  day  when  the  rarefaction  of 
the  great  central  valley  comes  to  its  aid  ;  that 
is,  from  about  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning,  to  the 
setting  of  the  sun.  Conceive  such  a  wind, 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX.  59 

chilled  by  the  cold  waters  that  have  come  down 
from  the  Northern  Pacific,  perhaps  from  Beh- 
ring's  Straits,  combing  the  tops  and  wheeling 
round  through  the  valleys  of  the  coastwiso 
mountains,  crossing  the  great  valley  at  a  much 
retarded  rate,  and  growing  hot  and  dry,  fan- 
ning gently  the  foot-hills  and  sides  of  the  Sierra, 
still  more  retarded  by  the  piling  necessary  to 
break  over  into  Utah,  and  the  conditions  of 
the  California  climate,  or  climates,  will  be  un- 
derstood with  general  accuracy.  Greater  sim- 
plicity in  the  matter  of  climate  is  impossible, 
and  greater  variety  is  hardly  to  be  imagined. 

"  For  the  whole  dry  season,  Adz.,  from  May 
to  November,  this  wind  is  in  regular  blast, 
day  by  day,  only  sometimes  approaching  a  lit- 
tle more  nearly  to  a  tempest  than  at  others. 
It  never  brings  a  drop  of  rain,  however  thick 
and  rain-like  the  clouds  it  sometimes  drives  be- 
fore it.  The  cloud  element,  indeed,  is  always 
in  it.  Sometimes  it  is  floated  above,  in  the 
manner  commonly  designated  by  the  term 
cloud.  Sometimes,  as  in  the  early  morning, 
when  the  wind  is  most  quiet,  it  may  be  seen  as 
a  kind  of  fog  bank  resting  on  the  sea-wall 
mountains  or  rolling  down  landward  through 
the  interstices  of  their  summits.  When  the 
wind  begins  to  hurry  and  take  on  less  compos- 


60  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON 

p.dly,  the  fog  becomes  blown  fog,  a  kind  of  lead 
dust  driven  through  the  air,  reducing  it  from  a 
transparent  to  a  semi-transparent  or  merely 
translucent  state,  so  that  if  any  one  looks  up 
the  bay,  from  a  point  twenty  or  thirty  miles 
south  of  San  Francisco,  in  the  afternoon,  he 
will  commonly  see,  directly  abreast  of  the 
Golden  Gate  where  this  wind  drives  in  with  its 
greatest  power,  a  pencil  of  the  lead  dust  shoot- 
ing upwards  at  an  angle  of  thirty  or  forty  de- 
grees, (which  is  the  aim  of  the  wind  preparing 
to  leap  the  second  chain  of  mountains,  the 
other  side  of  the  bay,)  and  finally  tapering  off 
and  vanishing,  at  a  mid-air  point  eight  or  ten 
miles  inland,  where  the  increased  heat  of  the 
atmosphere  has  taken  up  the  moisture,  and  re- 
stored its  complete  transparency.  This  wind 
is  so  cold,  that  one  who  will  sit  upon  the  deck 
of  the  afternoon  steamer  passing  up  the  bay, 
will  even  require  his  heaviest  winter  clothing. 
And  so  rough  are  the  waters  of  the  bay,  land- 
locked and  narrow  as  it  is,  that  sea-sickness  is  a 
kind  of  regular  experience,  with  such  as  are 
candidates  for  that  kind  of  felicity. 

"  We  return  now  to  the  middle  strip  of  tho 
great  valley  where  the  engine,  or  rather  boiler 
power,  that  operates  the  coast  wind  in  a  great 
part  of  its  velocity,  is  located.  Here  the  heat, 


LIFE   01    CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  61 

reverberated  as  in  a  forge,  or  oven  (whence 
Call — fornid)  becomes,  even  in  the  early  spring, 
so  much  raised  that  the  ground  is  no  longer 
able,  by  any  remaining  cold  there  is  in  it,  to 
condense  the  clouds,  and  rain  ceases.  A  little 
further  on  in  the  season,  there  is  not  cooling  in- 
fluence enough  left  to  allow  even  the  phenom- 
ena of  cloud,  and  for  weeks  together,  not  a 
cloud  will  be  seen,  unless,  by  chance,  the  skirt 
of  one  may  just  appear  now  and  then,  hanging 
over  the  summit  of  the  western  mountains. 
The  sun  rises,  fixing  his  hot  stare  on  the  world, 
and  stares  through  the  day.  Then  he  returns 
as  in  an  orrery,  and  stares  through  another,  in 
exactly  the  same  way.  The  thermometer  will 
go  up,  not  seldom,  to  100°  or  even  110°,  and 
judging  by  what  we  know  of  effects  here  in 
]NTew  England,  we  should  suppose  that  life 
would  scarcely  be  supportable.  And  yet  there 
is  much  less  suffering  from  heat  in  this  valley 
than  with  us,  for  the  reason  probably  that  the 
nights  are  uniformly  cool.  The  thermometer 
goes  down  regularly  with  the  sun,  and  one  or 
two  blankets  are  wanted  for  the  comfort  of  the 
night.  This  cooling  of  the  night  is  probably 
determined  by  the  fact  that  the  cool  sea  wind, 
sweeping  through  the  upper  air  of  the  valley, 
from  the  coast  mountains  on  one  side,  over  the 


62  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOU. 

mountains  and  mountain  passes  of  the  Sierra 
on  the  other,  is  not  able  to  get  down  to  the 
ground  of  the  valley  during  the  day,  because 
of  the  powerfully  steaming  column  of  heat  that 
rises  from  it ;  but  as  soon  as  the  sun  goes  down, 
it  drops  immediately  to  the  level  of  the  plain, 
bathing  it  for  the  night  with  a  kind  of  perpen- 
dicular sea  breeze,  that  has  lost  for  the  time  a 
great  part  of  its  lateral  motion.  The  conse- 
quence is  that  no  one  is  greatly  debilitated  by 
the. heat.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  the  general 
testimony,  that  a  man  can  do  as  much  of  men- 
tal or  bodily  labor  in  this  climate,  as  in  any 
other.  And  it  is  a  good  confirmation  of  this 
opinion,  that  horses  will  here  maintain  a  won- 
derful energy,  traveling  greater  distances,  com- 
plaining far  less  of  heat,  and  sustaining  their 
spirit  a  great  deal  better  than  with  us.  It  is 
also  to  be  noted  that  there  is  no  special  ten- 
dency to  fevers  in  this  hot  region,  except  in 
what  is  called  the  tide  bottom,  a  kind  of  giant 
I  ul rush  region,  along  the  most  depressed  and 
marshiest  portions  of  the  rivers. 

"  Passing  now  to  the  eastern  strip  or  portion, 
the  slope  of  the  Nevada,  the  heat,  except  in 
those  deep  canons  where  the  reverberation 
makes  it  sometimes  even  insupportable,  is 
(qualified  in  degree,  according  to  the  altitude. 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  03 

A  gentle  west  wind,  warmer  in  the  lower  parts 
or  foothills  by  the  heat  of  the  valley,  fans  it  all 
day.  At  points  which  are  higher,  the  wind  is 
cooler;  but  here  also,  on  the  slope  of  the  Neva- 
da, the  nights  are  always  cool  in  summer,  so  cool 
that  the  late  and  early  frosts  leave  too  short  a 
space  for  the  ordinary  summer  crop  to  mature, 
even  where  the  altitude  is  not  more  than  3,000 
or  4,000  feet.  Meantime,  at  the  top  of  the 
Sierra,  where  the  west  wind,  piling  up  from 
below,  breaks  over  into  Utah,  travelers  under- 
take to  say  that  in  some  of  the  passes  it  blows 
with  such  stress  as  even  to  polish  the  rocks,  by 
the  gravel  and  sand  which  it  drives  before  it. 
The  day  is  cloudless  on  the  slope  of  the  Sierra, 
as  in  the  valley  ;  but  on  the  top  there  is  now 
and  then,  or  once  in  a  year  or  two,  a  moderate 
thunder  shower.  With  this  exception,  as  re- 
ferring to  a  part  uninhabitable,  thunder  is 
scarcely  ever  heard  in  California.  The  prin- 
cipal thunders  of  California  are  underground. 
"  We  return  now  to  the  coast- wise  mountain 
region,  where  the  multiplicity  and  confusion 
of  climates  is  most  remarkable.  Their  variety 
we  shall  find  depends  on  the  courses  of  tho 
wind  currents,  turned  hither  and  thither  by 
the  mountains ;  partly  also  on  the  side  any 
given  place  occupies  of  its  valley  or  mountain; 


61  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

and  partly  on  the  proximity  of  the  sea. 
Sprinkled  in  among  these  mountains,  and 
more  or  less  inclosed  by  them,  are  valleys, 
large  and  small,  of  the  highest  beauty.  But 
a  valley  in  California  means  something  more 
than  a  scoop,  or  depression.  It  means  a  rich 
land-lake,  leveled  between  the  mountains,  with 
a  sharply  defined,  picturesque  shore,  where  it 
meets  the  sides  and  runs  into  the  indentations 
of  the  mountains.  What  is  called  the  Bay  of 
San  Francisco,  is  a  large  salt  water  lake  in  the 
middle  of  a  much  larger  land-lake,  sometimes 
called  the  San  Jose  valley.  It  extends  south 
of  the  city  forty  miles,  and  northward  among 
islands  and  mountains,  about  twenty-five  more, 
if  we  include  what  is  called  San  Pueblo  Bay. 
Three  beautiful  valleys  of  agricultural  country, 
the  Petaluma,  Sonora,  and  .Napa  valleys,  open 
into  this  larger  valley  of  the  bay,  on  the  north 
end  of  it,  between  four  mountain  barriers, 
having  each  a  short  navigable  creek  or  inlet. 
Still  farther  north  is  the  Russian  River  val- 
ley, opening  towards  the  sea,  and  the  Clear 
Lake  valley  and  region,  which  is  the  Switzer- 
land of  California.  East  of  the  San  Jose  val- 
ley, too,  at  the  foot  of  Diabola,  and  up  among 
the  mountains,  are  the  large  Amador  and  Sail 
Ramon  valleys,  also  the  little  gem  of  tlie 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  65 

Sunole.  Now  these  valleys,  which,  if  we  ex- 
cept the  great  valley  of  the  two  rivers,  com- 
prise the  plow-land  of  Middle  California,  have 
each  a  climate  of  its  own,  and  productions  that 
correspond.  We  have  only  to  observe  further, 
that  the  east  side  of  any  valley  will  commonly 
he  much  warmer  than  the  west ;  for  the  very 
paradoxical  reason  that  the  cold  coast-wind 
always  blows  much  harder  on  the  side  or  steep 
slope  even,  of  a  mountain,  opposite  or  away 
from  the  wind,  than  it  does  on  the  side  to- 
wards it,  reversing  all  our  notions  of  the  shel- 
tering effects  of  mountain  ridges." 
* 


CHAPTER   VII. 

this  brief  tarry  at  Los  Angelos,  Car 
son  had  not  been  idle,  but  entirely  without 
thought  that  his  confidence  could  be  deemed 
presumption,  arranging  his  dress  with  as  much 
care  as  its  character  permitted,  early  in  the 
morning  he  mounted  his  horse — always  in  ex- 
cellent trim— and  rode  to  the  residence  of  the 
man  he  had  been  informed  owned  the  best  ranclie 
in  the  vicinity,  and  dismounting  at  the  wicket 
gate,  entered  the  yard,  which  was  fenced  with 
a  finely  arranged  growth  of  club  cactus ;  and 
passing  up  the  gravel  walk  several  rods,  be- 
tween an  avenue  of  fig  trees,  with  an  occasional 
patch  of  grecu  shrubs,  and  a  few  flowers,  he 
stood  at  the  door  of  the  spacious  old  Spanish 
mansion,  which  was  built  of  adobe  one  story  in 
height  and  nearly  a  hundred  feet  in  length,  its 
roof  covered  with  asphaltum  mingled  with  sand 
— like  all  the  houses  in  Los  Angelos,  a  spring 

of  this  material  existing  a  little  way  from  the 
(66) 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOtf.  67 

• 

town.  After  waiting  a  few  moments  for  an 
answer  to  his  summons,  made  with  the  hugo 
brass  knocker,  an  Indian  servant  made  his  ap- 
pearance, and  ushered  him  to  an  elegantly  fur- 
nished room,  with  several  guitars  lying  about  as 
if  recently  in  use.  The  lordly  owner  of  the 
ranche  soon  appeared  in  morning  gown  and  slip- 
pers, the  picture  of  a  well  to  do  old  time  gen- 
tleman, with  an  air  evincing  an  acquaintance 
with  the  world  of  letters  and  of  art,  such  as 
only  travel  can  produce. 

He  asked  the  name  of  his  stranger  guest,  as 
Carson  approaching  addressed  him,  and  at 
once  commenced  a  conversation  in  English, 
saying  with  a  look  of  satisfied  pleasure,  "  I  ad- 
dress you  in  your  native  tongue,  which  I  pre- 
sume is  agreeable,  though  you  speak  very  good 
Spanish ;"  to  which  Carson,  much  more  sur- 
prised to  hear  his  native  language  so  fluently 
spoken,  than  his  host  was  to  be  addressed  in 
Spanish,  replied, 

"  It  is  certainly  agreeable  to  find  you  can 
give  me  the  information  which,  as  an  Ameri- 
can, I  seek,  in  the  language  my  mother  taught 
me,"  and  at  once  they  were  on  terms  of  easy 
familiarity. 

As  it  was  early  morning,  his  host  asked 
Carson  to  take  a  cup  of  coffee  with  him,  and 


63  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

conducting  him  to  the  breakfast  room,  pre- 
sented him  to  the  family — a  wife  and  several 
grown  sons  and  daughters. 

Carson  enjoyed  the  social  part  of  this  treat, 
more  than  the  tempting  viands  with  which  the 
board  was  loaded.  Though  Spanish  was  the 
language  most  used  by  the  family,  all  spoke 
English,  and  a  young  man  from  Massachu- 
setts was  with  them  as  a  tutor  to  some  of  the 
younger  children.  Breakfast  over,  the  host 
invited  him  to  visit  the  vineyard,  which  he 
said  was  hardly  in  condition  to  be  exhibited, 
as  the  picking  had  commenced  two  weeks  be- 
fore. He  said  his  yard,  of  a  thousand  varas, 
yielded  him  more  grapes  than  he  could  man- 
age to  dispose  of,  though  last  year  he  had 
made  several  butts  of  wine,  and  dried  five  thou- 
sand pounds  of  raisins.  The  vines  were  in  the 
form  of  little  trees,  so  closely  had  they  been 
trimmed,  and  were  still  loaded  with  the  purple 
clusters.  Tasting  them,  Carson  justly  remarked 
that  he  had  never  eaten  so  good  a  grape. 

"No,"  said  his  host,  "I  think  not;  neither 
have  I,  though  I  have  traveled  through  Eu- 
rope. The  valley  of  the  Rhine,  nor  of  the  Ta- 
gus,  produces  anywhere  a  grape  like  ours.  I 
think  that  the  Los  Angelos  grape  is  fit  food 
indeed  for  angels — is  quite  equal  to  the  grapes 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  69 

of  Eslicol — you  remember  the  heavy  clusters 
that  were  found  there,  so  that  two  men  carried 
one  between  them  on  a  pole  resting  upon  their 
shoulders.  See  that  now,"  and  he  drew  Car- 
son to  a  vine  whose  trunk  was  six  inches 
through,  and  yet  it  needed  a  prop  to  sustain 
the  weight  of  the  two  clusters  of  grapes  it 
bore. 

A  species  of  the  cactus,  called  the  prickly  pear, 
enclosed  the  vineyard,  and  this  really  bore  pears, 
or  a  fruit  of  light  orange  color,  in  the  form  of 
a  pear,  but  covered  with  a  down  of  prickles. 
The  Indian  boy  brought  a  towel,  and  wiping 
the  fruit  until  it  shone,  gave  to  Carson  to  taste. 
It  was  sweetish,  juicy,  and  rich,  but  with  less 
of  flavor  than  a  pear.  Beyond  the  vineyard 
were  groves  of  fig  and  orange  trees.  The  figs 
were  hardly  ripe,  being  the  third  crop  of  the 
season,  while  the  oranges  were  nearly  fit  for 
picking.  The  host  said  that  his  oranges  were 
better  than  usual  this  season,  but  he  did  not 
know  what  he  should  do  with  them.  He  was 
in  the  habit  of  shipping  them  to  Santa  Bar- 
bara and  Monterey,  and  thence  taking  some  to 
San  Jose ;  but  latterly  oranges  had  been 
brought  to  Monterey  from  the  Sandwich  islands 
by  ships  in  the  service  of  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company,  returning  from  the  China  trade  to 


70  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

the  mouth  of  the  Columbia,  which,  arriving 
before  his  were  ripe,  he  found  the  fruit  market 
forestalled. 

"  This  is  the  finest  country  the  sun  shines 
upon,"  said  he,  "  and  we  can  live  luxuriously 
upon  just  what  will  grow  on  our  own  farms; 
but  we  cannot  get  rich.  Our  cattle  will  only 
bring  the  value  of  the  hides ;  our  horses  are 
of  little  value,  for  there  are  plenty  running 
wild  which  good  huntsmen  can  take  with  the 
lasso;  and,  as  for  fruit,  from  which  I  had 
hoped  to  realize  something,  the  market  is  cut 
off  by  Yankee  competition.  I  think  we  shall 
have  the  Americans  with  us  before  many  years, 
and  for  my  part  I  hope  we  shall.  The  idea  of 
Californians  generally,  as  well  as  of  other  Mex 
irans,  that  they  are  too  shrewd  for  them,  is  true 
enough  ;  but  certainly  there  is  plenty  of  room 
for  a  large  population,  and  I  should  prefer 
that  the  race  that  has  most  enterprise,  should 
come  and  cultivate  the  country  with  us." 

Carson's  youth  commanded  him  to  listen, 
rather  than  to  advance  his  own  sentiments ; 
but  he  expressed  his  pleasure  at  hearing  his 
Lost  compliment  the  Americans,  and  said  in 
reply,  "  I  have  not  been  an  extensive  traveler, 
and  have  chosen  the  life  of  a  mountaineer,  for 
a  time  certainly ;  but  since  I  came  to  Califor- 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  71 

ma,  I  am  half  inclined  to  decide  to  make  this 
my  home  when  I  get  tired  of  trapping.  1  like 
the  hunt,  and  have  found  game  exceedingly 
plenty  here,  but  there  is  no  buffalo,  and  I 
want  that.  Give  me  buffalo,  and  I  would  set- 
tle in  California." 

lie  described  to  his  host  a  buffalo  hunt  in 
which  he  engaged  with  the  Sioux  Indians, 
before  he  left  his  father's  home,  at  fifteen  years 
of  age,  and  another  later,  since  he  came  into 
the  mountains.  He  had  hunted  buffalo  every 
year  since  he  was  twelve  years  old. 

The  Don  was  charmed  with  the  earnestness 
and  the  frankness,  and  manifest  integrity  of 
the  youth,  and  turning  his  glance  upon  him, 
with  the  slightly  quizzical  expression  the  face 
a  Spaniard  so  readily  assumes,  he  inquired 
how  manv  buffalo  he  had  ever  killed. 

«/ 

"  Not  so  many  as  I  have  deer,  because  I  was 
always  in  a  deer  country;  but  in  the  eight 
years  since  I  commenced  going  in  the  buffalo 
ranges,  I  must  have  killed  five  hundred.  The 
hunter  docs  not  ki}l  without  he  wishes  to  use. 
I  was  often  permitted  to  take  a  shot  at  the 
animals  before  I  was  able  to  help  in  dressing 
them." 

But  Carson  felt  it  might  seem  like  boasting, 


72  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

* 

for  him  to  tell  his  own  exploits,  and  changing 
the  theme,  remarked, 

"  Your  horses  would  make  excellent  buffalo 
hunters,  with  the  proper  training,  and  I  havo 
some  at  camp  that  I  intend  shall  see  buffalo. 
13 ut  why  do  you  not  deal  gently  with  them 
when  they  are  first  caught,  and  keep  the  fire 
they  have  in  the  herd?  Pardon  me,  but  I 
think  in  taming  your  horses,  you  break  their 
spirits." 

"  My  tutor  has  said  the  same,  and  I  too 
have  thought  so  in  regard  to  the  Mexican 
style  of  training  our  horses.  We  mount  one 
just  caught  from  the  drove,  and  ride  him  till 
he  becomes  gentle  from  exhaustion.  The 
French  do  not  train  horses  in  that  way,  nor 
the  English ;  I  have  not  been  in  the  United 
States.  Our  custom  is  brought  from  Spain ; 
and  it  answers  well  enough  with  us,  where  our 
horses  go  in  droves,  and  when  one  is  used  up, 
we  turn  him  out  and  take  up  another;  but 
when  we  take  this  animal  again,  he  is  just  as 
wild  as  at  the  first ;  we  cannot  afford  to  spend 
time  on  breaking  him  when  it  must  be  done 
over  again  directly." 

And  so  the  two  hours,  which  Carson  had 
allotted  for  his  visit,  passed  in  easy  chat,  and 
when  he  took  his  leave,  his  host  expressed 


LIFE   OF    CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  73 

his  thanks  for  his  visit,  and  promised  to  re- 
turn it  at  the  camp. 

Carson  did  not  again  see  his  courteous  host, 
for  early  on  the  following  morning,  Mr.  Young 
found  it  necessary  that  he  should  get  his  men 
away  from  Los  Angelos  as  speedily  as  possi- 
ble. They  had  been  indulging  to  excess  in  bad 
liquors,  and  having  none  of  the  best  feelings 
towards  the  Mexicans,  many  quarrels,  some 
ending  in  bloodshed,  had  ensued. 

He  therefore  despatched  Carson  ahead  with 
a  few  men,  promising  to  follow  and  overtake 
him  at  the  earliest  moment,  and  waiting  rn- 
other  day,  he  managed  to  get  his  followers  in 
a  tolerably  sober  condition,  and  succeeded, 
though  not  without  much  trouble,  in  gett-mg 
away  without  the  loss  of  a  man,  though  the 
Mexicans  were  desperately  enraged  at  the 
death  of  one  of  their  townsmen,  who  had  been 
killed  in  a  chance  fray.  In  three  days  he 
overtook  Carson,  and  the  party,  once  more  re- 
united, advanced  rapidly  towards  the  Colorado 
River,  his  men  working  with  a  heartiness  and 
cheerfulness,  resulting  from  a  consciousness 
of  their  misconduct  at  Los  Angelos,  which,  but 
for  the  prudent  discretion  of  Young  and  Car- 
son, might  have  resulted  disastrously  to  all 
concerned. 


?%  LlFJ?   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSCN. 

i>i  nine  days  they  were  ready  to  commence 
trapping  on  the  Colorado,  and  in  a  short  time 
added  here  to  the  large  stock  of  furs  they  had 
brought  from  California. 

Here  while  left  in  charge  of  the  camp,  with 
only  a  few  men,  Carson  found  himself  suddenly 
confronted  by  several  hundred  Indians.  They 
entered  the  camp  with  the  utmost  assurance, 
and  acted  as  though  they  felt  the  power  of 
their  numbers.  Carson  at  once  suspected  that 
all  was  not  right,  and  attempting  to  talk  with 
them,  he  soon  discovered  that,  with  all  their 
sang  froid,  each  of  them  carried  his  weapons 
concealed  beneath  his  garments,  and  immedi- 
ately ordered  them  out  of  camp.  Seeing  the 
small  number  of  the  white  men,  the  Indians 
were  not  inclined  to  obey,  bat  chose  to  wait 
their  time  and  do  as  they  pleased,  as  they 
were  accustomed  to  do  with  the  Mexicans. 
They  soon  learned  that  they  wore  dealing  with 
men  of  different  mettle,  for  Carson  was  a  man 
not  to  be  trifled  with. 

His  men  stood  around  him,  each  with  his 
rifle  resting  in  the  hollow  of  the  arm,  ready 
to  be  dropped  to  deadly  aim  on  the  sign  from 
their  young  commander.  Carson  addressed 
the  old  chief  in  Spanish,  (for  he  had  betrayed 
his  knowledge  of  that  language,)  and  warned 


•  '   '•     '-\l  •    'T'1 

P:S 


GARSON    GOES    AHEAD   WITH   THE    PARTY. 


LIFE   OF   CHKISTOPHEK    CARSOX.  7o 

him  that  though  they  were  few,  they  were  de- 
termined to  sell  their  lives  dearly.  The  In- 
dians awed,  it  would  seem,  by  the  bold  and  de- 
fiant language  of  Carson,  and  finding  that  any 
plunder  they  might  acquire,  would  be  pur* 
chased  at  a  heavy  sacrifice,  sullenly  withdrew, 
and  left  the  party  to  pursue  their  journey  un- 
molested. 

Any  appearance  of  fear  would  have  cost  the 
lives  of  Carson  and  probably  of  the  whole 
party,  but  the  Indian  warriors  were  too  chary 
of  their  lives  to  rush  into  death's  door  unpro- 
voked, even  for  the  sake  of  the  rich  plunder 
they  might  hope  to  secure.  Carson's  cool 
bravery  saved  the  trappers  and  all  their 
effects ;  and  this  first  command  in  an  Indian 
engagement  is  but  a  picture  of  his  conduct  in 
a  hundred  others,  when  the  battles  were  with 
weapons  other  than  the  tongue.  The  inten- 
tion of  the  Indians  had  been  to  drive  away  the 
animals,  first  causing  a  stampede,  wrhen  they 
would  become  lawful  plunder,  but  they  dared 
not  undertake  it. 

The  wily  craftiness  of  the.  Indians  induced 
the  necessity  for  constant  vigilance  against 
them,  and  in  the  school  this  youth  had  been 
in  all  his  life,  he  had  shown  himself  an  apt 
scholar. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

WHILE  on  the  Colorado,  Young's  party  dis- 
covered a  company  of  Indians,  (with  whom 
they  had  had  a  previous  skirmish,)  as  they  were 
coming  out  from  Los  Angelos,  and  charging 
suddenly  among  them,  succeeded  in  taking  a 
large  herd  of  cattle  from  them  in  the  Indians' 
own  style.  The  same  wreek  an  Indian  party 
came  past  their  camp  in  the  night,  with  a  drove 
of  a  hundred  horses,  evidently  just  stolen  from 
a  Mexican  town  in  Sonora.  The  trappers, 
with  their  guns  for  their  pillows,  were  ready  in 
an  instant  for  the  onslaught,  and  captured  these 
horses  also,  the  Indians  hurrying  away  for  fear 
of  the  deadly  rifle.  The  next  day  they  selected 
such  as  they  wanted  from  the  herd,  choosing  of 
course  the  finest,  and  turning  the  rest  loose,  to 
be  taken  again  by  the  Indians,  or  to  become 
the  wild  mustangs  that  roamed  the  plains  of 
Northern  Mexico,  ir.  droves  of  tens  of  thou- 
sands, and  which  could  be  captured  and  tamed 
only  by  the  use  of  the  lasso. 
4  (76) 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  77 

Mr.  Young  and  his  party  trapped  down  the 
Colorado  and  up  the  Gila  with  success,  then 
crossed  to  the  vicinity  of  the  New  Mexican 
copper  mines,  where  they  left  their  furs  and 
went  to  Santa  Fe.  Having  procured  there 
license  to  trade  with  the  Indians  about  the  cop- 
per mines,  they  returned  thither  for  their  furs, 
went  back  to  Santa  Fe  and  disposed  of  them 
to  great  advantage.  The  party  disbanded  writh 
several  hundred  dollars  apiece,  which  most  of 
them  expended  as  sailors  do  their  earnings 
when  they  come  into  port.  Of  course  Carson 
was  hail  fellow  well  met  with  them  for  a  time. 
He  had  not  hitherto  taken  the  lesson  that  all 
have  to  learn,  viz.,  that  the  ways  of  pleasure 
are  deceitful  paths ;  and  to  resist  temptation 
needs  a  large  amount  of  courage — larger  per- 
haps than  to  encounter  any  physical  danger ; 
at  least  the  moral  courage  it  requires  is  of  a 
higher  tone  than  the  physical  courage  which 
would  carry  one  through  a  fight  with  a  grizzly 
bear  triumphantly ;  that  the  latter  assists  the 
former ;  indeed  that  the  highest  moral  courage 
must  be  aided  by  physical  bravery,  but  that  the 
latter  may  exist  entirely  independently  of  the 
former. 

Carson  learned  during  this  season  of  hilarity 
the  necessity  of  saying  No !  and  he  did  so  per- 


78  LIFE   OF    CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

sistently,  knowing  that  if  he  failed  in  this  h« 
would  be  lost  to  himself  and  to  everything  dear 
in  life.  He  was  now  twenty-one,  and  though 
the  terrible  ordeal  of  poverty  had  been  nobly 
borne,  and  he  had  conquered,  the  latter  or- 
deal of  temptation  from  the  sudden  possession 
of  what  was  to  him  a  large  sum  of  money,  had 
proved  for  once,  too  much.  And  it  is  well  for 
him  perhaps  it  was  so  ;  as  it  enabled  him  to 
sow  his  wild  oats  in  early  youth. 

It  is  not  improbable  that  some  of  this  party 
belonged  to  the  class  of  Canadians  called  cour- 
eurs  des  bois,  whose  habits  Mr.  Irving  thus  de- 
scribes in  his  Astoria : 

"  A  new  and  anomalous  class  of  men  gradu- 
ally grew  out  of  this  trade.  These  were  called 
coureurs  des  bois,  rangers  of  the  woods ;  orig- 
inally men  who  had  accompanied  the  Indians 
in  their  hunting  expeditions,  and  made  them- 
selves acquainted  with  remote  tracts  and  tribes ; 
and  who  now  became,  as  it  were,  pedlers  of 
the  wilderness.  These  men  would  set  out  from 
Montreal  with  canoes  well  stocked  with  goods, 
with  arms  and  ammunition,  and  would  make 
their  way  up  the  mazy  and  wandering  rivers 
that  interlace  the  vast  forests  of  the  Canadas, 
coasting  the  most  remote  lakes,  and  creating 
new  wants  and  habitudes  among  the  natives. 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX.  79 

Sometimes  they  sojourned  for  months  among 
them,  assimilating  to  their  tastes  and  habits 
with  the  happy  facility  of  Frenchmen  ;  adopt- 
ing in  some  degree  the  Indian  dress,  and  not 
unfrequently  taking  to  themselves  Indian 
wi  yes. 

"  Twelve,  fifteen,  eighteen  months  would  often 
elapse  without  any  tidings  of 'them,  when  they 
would  come  sweeping  their  way  down  the  Ot- 
tawa in  full  glee,  their  canoes  laden  down  with 
packs  of  beaver  skins.  Now  came  their  turn 
for  revelry  and  extravagance.  "  You  would  be 
amazed,"  says  an  old  writer  already  quoted, 
"  if  you  saw  how  lewd  these  pedlers  are  when 
they  return ;  how  they  feast  and  game,  and 
how  prodigal  they  are,  not  only  in  their  clothes, 
but  upon  their  sweethearts.  Such  of  them  as 
are  married  have  the  wisdom  to  retire  to  their 
own  houses ;  but  the  bachelors  do  just  as  an 
East  Indiaman  and  pirates  are  wont  to  do ;  for 
they  lavish,  eat,  drink,  and  play  all  away  as 
long  as  the  goods  hold  out ;  and  when  these 
are  gone,  they  even  sell  their  embroidery,  their 
lace,  and  their  clothes.  This  done,  they  are 
forced  upon  a  new  voyage  for  subsistence." 

Many  of  these  coureurs  des  bois  became  so 
accustomed  to  the  Indian  mode  of  living,  and 
the  perfect  freedom  of  the  wilderness,  that 


80  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

they  lost  all  relish  for  civilization,  and  identi- 
fied themselves  with  the  savages  among  whom 
they  dwelt,  or  could  only  be  distinguished  from 
them  by  superior  licentiousness. 

In  the  autumn  Carson  joined  another  trap- 
ping party  under  Mr.  Fitzpatrick,  whom  wo 
shall  have  frequent  occasion  to  mention  here- 
after. They  proceeded  up  the  Platte  and 
Sweet  Water  past  Goose  Creek  to  the  Salmon 
River,  where  they  wintered,  like  other  parties, 
sharing  the  good  will  of  the  Nez  Perces  In- 
dians, and  having  the  vexations  of  the  Black- 
feet  for  a  constant  fear.  Mr.  Fitzpatrick,  less 
daring  than  Carson,  declined  sending  him  to 
punish  this  tribe  for  their  depredations. 

In  the  spring  they  came  to  Bear  river, 
which  flows  from  the  north  to  Salt  Lake. 
Carson  and  four  men  left  Mr.  Fitzpatrick  here, 
and  went  ten  days  to  find  Captain  Gaunt  in 
the  place  called  the  New  Park,  on  the  head 
waters  of  the  Arkansas,  where  they  spent  the 
trapping  season,  and  wintered.  While  tho 
party  were  wintering  in  camp,  being  robbed 
of  some  of  their  horses  by  a  band  of  sixty 
Crow  Indians,  Carson,  as  usual,  was  appointed 
to  lead  the  party  sent  in  pursuit  of  the  plun- 
derers. With  only  twelve  men  he  took  up 
the  trail,  came  upon  the  Indians  in  one  of 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  81 

their  strongholds,  cut  loose  the  animals,  which 
were  tied  within  ten  feet  of  the  fort  of  logs  in 
which  the  enemy  had  taken  shelter,  attacked 
them,  killed  five  of  their  warriors,  and  made 
good  his  retreat  with  the  recovered  horses  ;  an 
Indian  of  another  tribe  who  was  with  the  trap- 
pers bringing  away  a  Crow  scalp  as  a  tro- 
l*y* 

In  the  spring,  while  trapping  on  the  Platte 
River,  two  men  belonging  to  1  he  party  deserted 
and  robbed  a  cache,  or  underground  deposit  of 
furs,  which  had  been  made  by  Captain  Gaunt, 
in  the  neighborhood.  Carson,  with  only  one 
companion,  went  off  in  pursuit  of  the  thieves, 
who,  however,  were  never  heard  of  afterwards, 

Xot  finding  the  plunderers,  Carson  and  his 
companion  remained  at  the  old  camp  on  the 
Arkansas,  where  the  cache  had  been  made, 
until  they  were  relieved  by  a  party  sent  out 
from  the  United  States  with  supplies  for  Cap- 
tain Gaunt's  trappers.  They  were  soon  after 
joined  by  a  party  of  Gaunt's  men,  and  started 
to  his  camp.  On  their  way  they  had  re- 
peated encounters  with  Indians  attempting  to 
steal  their  horses,  but  easily  beat  them  off  and 
saved  their  property. 

On  one  occasion  when  Carson  and  the  other 

*  Cuti«.   Conquest  of  California  and  New  Mexico. 


82  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

trappers  were  out  in  search  of  leaver  sign,  they 
came  suddenly  upon  a  band  of  sixty  warriors 
well  armed  and  mounted.  In  the  presence  of 
such  a  force  their  only  safety  was  in  flight. 
Amid  a  shower  of  bullets  from  the  Indian 
rifles,  they  made  good  their  escape.  Carsjn 
considered  this  one  of  his  narrowest  escapes. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

IN  the  spring  of  1832,  Mr.  Gaunt's  party  had 
been  unsuccessful,  and  were  now  upon  a  stream 
where  there  was  no  beaver,  therefore  Carson 
announced  his  intention  of  hunting  on  his  own 
account.  Two  of  his  companions  joined  him, 
and  the  three  for  the  whole  season  pursued 
their  work  successfully,  high  up  in  the  moun- 
tain streams,  while  the  Indians  were  down  in 
the  plains  hunting  buffalo ;  and  taking  their 
fur  to  Taos,  disposed  of  them  at  a  remunera- 
tive price.  While  the  two  former  spent  their 
money  in  the  usual  way,  Carson  saved  his 
hard  earnings  which  his  companions  were  so 
recklessly  throwing  away.  This  self-disci- 
pline, and  schooling  himself  to  virtue  and  tem- 
perance, was  not  without  effort  on  the  part 
<»f  Kit  Carson,  for  he  loved  the  good  will  and 
kindly  civilities  of  his  companions;  but  lie 
knew  also  that  he  could  not  have  his  cake  and 


84  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

eat  it  too,  and  chose  to  save  his  money  and  his 
strength  for  future  use. 

While  remaining  at  Taos,  Captain  Lee,  for- 
merly of  the  United  States  army,  now  a  part- 
ner of  Bent  and  St.  Vrain,  at  Bent's  Fort,  in- 
vited Carson  to  join  an  expedition  which  he 
was  arranging.  Carson  accepted  his  offer, 
starting  in  October.  Going  northward  they 
came  up  with  a  party  of  twenty  traders  and 
trappers,  upon  a  branch  of  the  Green  River, 
and  all  entered  winter  quarters  here  together, 

Mr.  Robideau  had  in  his  employ  a  Califor- 
nian  Indian,  very  skillful  in  the  chase — whether 
for  game  or  for  human  prey — very  courageous, 
and  able  to  endure  the  greatest  hardships,  and 
whose  conduct  hitherto  had  won  the  confi- 
dence of  all.  This  Indian  had  left  clandes- 
tinely, taking  with  him  six  of  Mr.  Robideau's 
most  valuable  horses,  which  were  worth  at 
least  twelve  hundred  dollars.  Mr.  Robideau, 
determined  to  recover  them  if  possible,  solic- 
ited Carson  to  pursue  and  overtake  the  Indian. 
Kit  asked  his  employer,  Mr.  Lees',  permission 
to  serve  Mr.  Robideau,  which  was  readily 
granted,  when  he  at  once  prepared  himself  for 
hard  riding  and  sturdy  resistance. 

From  a  Utah  village  near  he  obtained  an  in- 
telligent and  brave  young  warrior  to  join  him 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  85 

-for  Carson's  reputation  for  courage,  skill, 
and  efficiency,  were  known  to  the  tribes,  and 
many  of  its  braves  were  attached  to  him,  and 
afterwards  proved  that  they  cherished  a  lasting 
friendship  for  him. 

For  a  time  the  blindness  of  the  trail  com- 
pelled them  to  go  slowly,  but  once  sure  of  its 
direction,  they  pursued  it  with  the  utmost 
speed,  down  Green  river,  Carson  concluding 
the  Indian  was  directing  his  course  toward 
California.  When  they  had  gone  a  hundred 
miles  on  their  way,  the  Indian's  horse  was 
suddenly  taken  sick.  The  Indian  would  not 
consent  to  continue  the  pursuit,  as  Carson  sug- 
gested, on  foot,  and  he  therefore  determined  to 
go  on  alone,  and  putting  spurs  to  his  horse  re- 
solved not  to  return  until  he  had  succeeded  in 
recovering  Mr.  Robideau's  property.  With 
practiced  eye  ever  upon  the  trail,  he  revolved 
in  his  mind  the  expert  skill  he  might  need  to 
exercise  in  encountering  the  wily  savage.  This 
desperate  expedition  Carson  had  boldly  entered 
into,  not  with  rashness,  but  he  had  accepted  it 
as  an  occasion  that  demanded  the  hazard.  At 
the  distance  of  thirty  miles  from  where  he  left 
his  Utah  companion,  he  discovered  the  object 
of  his  chase.  The  Indian  too  had  dis- 
covered him,  and  to  prepare  himself  for  the 


66  LIFE   OF  CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

attack,  turned  to  seek  a  shelter  whence  he 
might  fire  and  reload  without  exposure  to  the 
shot  from  Carson's  rifle — which  he  had  un- 
slung  when  first  he  discovered  the  Indian. 

With  his  horse  at  full  speed,  at  the  momert 
the  Indian  reached  his  cover,  Carson  fired  witw 
aim  so  true  that  the  Indian  gave  one  bound 
and  fell  dead  beside  his  horse,  while  his  gun 
went  off  at  the  same  instant.  No  further  par 
ticulars  of  description  or  speculation  cat]  add 
to  the  interest  of  this  picture.  We  lea  v  e  vt  t-d 
the  imagination  of  the  reader,  as  an  illus- 
tration of  the  daring  and  fidelity  of  Kit 
Carson.  Collecting  the  horses,  he  soon  had 
the  pleasure,  after  a  few  minor  difficulties,  of 
presenting  to  Mr.  Robideau,  the  six  animals 
he  had  lost,  in  as  good  condition  as  when  they 
were  stolen,  and  of  announcing  to  him  the  fact 
that  there  lived  one  less  rogue. 

Soon  after  Carson's  return  to  camp,  some 
trappers  brought  them  news  that  Messrs,  Jb1it&« 
patrick  and  Bridger  were  camped  fifteen  miles 
from  them.  Captain  Lee  and  Carson  at  once 
concluded  that  to  them  they  might  sell  their 
goods.  They  started  for  their  camp  and  were 
as  successful  as  they  had  noped,  for  they  sold 
their  whole  stock  of  goods  to  this  party  y  arid 
took  their  pay  in  furs.  Their  contract  being 


"WHEN  THE  BEARS  CLIMBED  SO  NEAR  AS  TO  REACH  HIM, 
HE  GAVE  THEM  SMART  RAPS  ON  THE  NOSE." 


LIFE  OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  87 

now  completed,  Carson  joined  Mr.  Fitzpatrick 
again  in  a  trapping  expedition,  but  did  not 
remain  long  with  him,  because  the  party  was 
too  large  to  make  it  pay,  or  even  to  work  har- 
moniously together.  With  three  men  whom 
he  chose  from  the  many  who  wished  to  join 
him,  Carson  again  commenced  trapping  on  his 
own  account.  They  trapped  all  summer  on 
the  Laranuc,  with  unusual  success.  It  was 
while  Carson  was  out  on  this  tramp  that  he  had 
the  adventure  with  the  grizzly  bears,*  which  he 
considered  the  most  perilous  that  he  ever 
passed  through.  He  had  gone  out  from  the 
camp  on  foot  to  shoot  game  for  supper,  and 
had  just  brought  down  an  elk,  when  two  griz- 
zly bears  came  suddenly  upon  him.  His  rifle 
being  empty,  there  was  no  way  of  escape  from 
instant  death  but  to  run  with  his  utmost  speed 
for  the  nearest  tree.  He  reached  a  sapling 
with  the  bears  just  at  his  heels.  Cutting  off 
a  limb  of  the  tree  with  his  knife,  he  used  that 
as  his  only  weapon  of  defence.  When  tho 
bears  climbed  so  as  nearly  to  reach  him,  he 
gave  them  smart  raps  on  the  nose;  which  sent 
them  away  growling ;  but  when  the  pain  ceased 
they  would  return  again  only  to  have  the 
raps  repeated.  In  this  way  nearly  the  wholo 

*  Petere. 


j  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CAESOJT. 

night  was  spent,  when  finally  the  bears  becaino 
discouraged,  and  retired  from  the  contest. 
Waiting  until  they  were  well  out  of  sight* 
Carson  descended  from  his  unenviable  posi- 
tion, and  made  the  best  of  his  way  into  camp, 
which  he  reached  about  daylight.  The  elk 
had  been  devoured  by  wolves  before  it  could 
be  found,  and  his  three  companions  were  only 
too  glad  to  see  him,  to  be  troubled  about 
breakfasting  on  beaver,  as  they  had  supped 
the  night  before ;  for  trappers  in  camp  en- 
gaged in  their  business  had  this  resort  for 
food  when  all  others  failed. 

Laramie  river  flows  into  the  North  Platte, 
upon  the  south  side.  The  country  through 
which  it  flows  is  open,  yet  the  stream  is  bordered 
with  a  variety  of  shrubbery,  and  in  many  spots 
the  cotton  wood  grows  luxuriantly,  and  for  this 
reason,  the  locality  is  favorable  for  the  grizzly 
bear. 

Baird  says  of  this  bear:  "While  the  black 
bear  is  the  bear  of  the  forest,  the  grizzly  is  the 
bear  of  the  chapparal,  the  latter  choosing  an 
open  country,  whether  plain  or  mountain,  whose 
surface  is  covered  with  dense  thickets  of  man- 
zanita  or  shrub  oak,  which  furnish  him  with  his 
favorite  food,  and  clumps  of  service  bushes,  and 
low  cherry;  and  whose  streams  are  lined  with 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX.  89 

tangled  thickets  of  low  grape  vine  an  1  wild 
plumb."  The  grizzly  is  not  so  good  at  climb- 
ing as  the  black  bear,  and  can  best  manage  by 
resting  upon  his  haunches  and  mounting  with 
his  fore  arms  upon  the  bushes  that  he  cannot 
pull  over,  to  gather  the  berries,  of  which  ho  is 
very  fond. 

"  Only  in  a  condition  of  hunger  will  he  at- 
tack a  man  unprovoked,  but  when  he  does, 
the  energy  with  which  he  fights,  prevents  the 
Indians  from  seeking  the  sport  of  a  hunt  for 
the  grizzly  bear.  He  is  monarch  of  the  plain, 
with  only  their  opposition,  and  has  departed 
only  before  the  rifle  of  the  white  hunter.  An 
Indian,  who  would,  alone,  undertake  to  con- 
quer a  dozen  braves  of  another  tribe,  would 
shrink  from  attacking  a  grizzly  bear ;  and  to 
have  killed  one,  furnishes  a  story  for  a  life 
time,  and  gives  a  reputation  that  descends  to 
posterity.  The  mounted  hunter  can  rarely 
bring  his  horse  to  approach  him  near  enough 
for  a  shot." 

Soon  after  his  encounter  with  the  bears, 
Carson  and  his  men  were  rejoiced  by  the  arri- 
val of  Capt.  Bridger,  so  long  a  mountaineer  of 
note,  and  with  him  his  whole  band.  Carson 
and  his  three  companions  joined  with  them, 
and  were  snfe ;  and  now  for  the  first  time  lie 


90  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

attended  the  summer  rendezvous  of  trappers 
on  the  Green  River,  where  they  assembled  for 
the  disposal  of  their  furs,  and  the  purchase  of 
such  outfit  as  they  needed. 

Carson  for  the  Fall  hunt  joined  a  company 
of  fifty,  and  went  to  the  country  of  the  Black- 
feet,  at  the  head  waters  of  the  Missouri ;  but 
the  Indians  were  sc  numerous,  and  so  determ- 
ined upon  hostility,  that  a  white  man  could  not 
leave  his  camp  without  danger  of  being  shot 
down ;  therefore,  quitting  the  Blackfeet  coun- 
try, they  camped  on  the  Big  Snake  River  for 
winter  quarters. 

During  the  winter  months,  the  Blackfeet  had 
in  the  night  run  off  eighteen  of  their  horses, 
and  Kit  Carson,  with  eleven  men,  was  sent  to 
recover  them,  and  chastise  their  temerity. 
They  rode  fifty  miles  through  the  snow  before 
coming  up  with  the  Indians,  and  instantly 
made  an  attempt  to  recover  their  animals, 
which  were  loose  and  quietly  grazing. 

The  Indians,  wearing  snow  shoes,  had  the 
advantage,  and  Carson  readily  granted  the 
parley  they  asked.  One  man  from  each  party 
advanced,  and  between  the  contending  ranks 
had  a  talk.  The  Indians  informed  them  that 
they  supposed  they  had  been  robbing  the 
Snake  Indians,  and  did  not  desire  to  steal  from 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  91 

«vhite  men.  Of  course  this  tale  was  false,  and 
Carson  asked  why  they  did  not  lay  clown  their 
arms  and  ask  for  a  smoke,  but  to  this  they  had 
no  reply  to  make.  However,  both  parties  laid 
aside  their  weapons  and  prepared  for  the 
smoke  ;  and  the  lighted  calumet  was  puffed  by 
every  one  of  the  savages  and  the  whites  alter- 
nately, and  the  head  men  of  the  savages  made 
several  long  non-committal  speeches,  to  which, 
in  reply,  the  trappers  came  directly  to  the 
point,  and  said  they  would  hear  nothing  of 
conciliation  from  them  until  their  property  was 
returned. 

After  much  talk,  the  Indians  brought  in  five 
of  the  poorest  horses.  The  whites  at  once 
started  for  their  guns,  which  the  Indians  did 
at  the  same  time,  and  the  fight  at  once  com- 
menced. Carson  and  a  comrade  named  Mark- 
land  having  seized  their  rifles  first,  were  at  the 
lead,  and  selected  for  their  mark  two  Indians 
who  were  near  each  other  and  behind  different 
trees ;  but  as  Kit  was  about  to  fire,  he  per- 
ceived Markland's  antagonist  aiming  at  him 
with  death-like  precision,  while  Markland  had 
not  noticed  him,  and  on  the  instant,  neglecting 
his  own  adversary,  he  sent  a  bullet  through  the 
heart  of  the  other  savage,  but  at  the  moment 
saw  that  his  own  enemy's  rifle  was  aimed  at 


92  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER    CARSOff. 

his  breast.  He  was  not  quite  quick  enough  to 
dodge  the  ball,  and  it  struck  the  side  of  his 
neck,  and  passed  through  his  shoulder,  shat- 
teriiig  the  bone. 

Carson  was  thenceforward  only  a  spectator 
of  the  fight,  which  continued  until  night,  when 
both  parties  retired  from  the  field  of  battle  and 
went  into  camp. 

Carson's  wound  was  very  painful,  and  bled 
freely,  till  the  cold  checked  the  flow  of  blood. 
They  dared  not  light  a  fire,  and  in  the  cold  and 
darkness,  Carson  uttered  not  a  word  of  com- 
plaint, nor  did  even  a  groan  escape  him.  His 
companions  were  earnest,  in  their  sympathy, 
but  he  was  too  brave  to  need  it,  or  to  allow  his 
wound  to  influence  the  course  they  should  pur- 
sue. In  a  council  of  war  which  they  held,  it 
was  decided  that,  as  they  had  slain  several 
Indians,  and  had  themselves  only  one  wounded, 
they  had  best  return  to  camp,  as  they  were  in 
unfit  condition  to  continue  the  pursuit.  Ar- 
riving at  camp,  another  council  was  held,  at 
which  it  was  decided  to  send  thirty  men  under 
Capt.  Bridger,  to  pursue  and  chastise  these 
Blackfeet  thieves.  This  party  followed  the 
Indian  trail  several  days,  but  finally  returned, 
concluding  it  was  useless  to  search  further,  as 
they  had  failed  to  overtake  them. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  Spring  hunt  opened  on  the  Green 
river,  and  continuing  there  a  while,  tli^  party 
went  to  the  Big  Snake;  and  after  trapping 
with  extraordinary  success  for  a  few  weeks, 
returned  to  the  Summer  rendezvous,  held 
again  upon  the  Green  River.  Meantime  Car- 
son had  recovered  from  his  wound. 

An  unusually  large  number  of  trappers  and 
traders,  with  great  numbers  from  the  neighbor- 
ing Indian  tribes,  assembled  at  this  rendezvous, 
made  up  of  Canadians,  Frenchmen,  Dutchmen, 
Spaniards,  and  many  a  backwoodsman,  who 
had  lived  upon  the  borders,  perhaps,  for  three 
generations,  removing  when  a  neighbor  came 
within  ten  miles,  because  near  neighbors 
were  a  nuisance  to  him.  Let  us  see  the 
parties  as  they  come  in,  the  leader,  or  the  one 
to  whom  fitness  accords  this  position,  having 
selected  the  spot  for  the  camp,  so  remote  from 
every  other,  as  to  have  plenty  of  grass  about  it 


94  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

for  the  animals  of  the  party.  Perhaps  a  tent 
is  spread,  at  least,  everything  is  put  in  proper 
order,  according  to  the  notions  and  the  tastes 
of  the  men  who  make  up  the  party ;  for  the 
camp  is  the  home  of  its  members,  and  hero 
they  will  receive  visitors,  and  exchange  cour 
tesies. 

The  party  or  parties  that  have  made  the 
special  arrangements  for  the  rendezvous — tra- 
ders with  a  full  supply  of  goods — have  spread 
a  large  tent  in  a  central  spot  of  the  general 
encampment,  where  the  wrhole  company,  save 
those  detained  at  each  camp  in  charge  of  the 
animals  belonging  to  it,  will  assemble,  at  cer- 
tain hours  each  day,  the  time  upon  which  the 
sales  are  announced  to  take  place,  and  the  ex- 
changes commence. 

The  several  parties  arriving  first,  have  been 
obliged  to  wait  until  all  expected  for  the  sea- 
son have  arrived,  because  there  is  a  feeling  of 
honor  as  well  as  a  care  for  competition,  that 
compels  the  custom.  The  traders  take  furs  or 
money  for  their  goods,  which  bring  prices  that 
seem  fabulous  to  those  unaccustomed  to  the 
sight  or  stories  of  mountain  life.  The  charge, 
of  course,  is  made  upon  the  ground  of  the  ex- 
pense and  risk  of  bringing  goods  eight  hun- 
dred and  a  thousand  miles  into  the  wilderness, 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  95 

from  the  nearest  points  in  western  Missouri 
and  St.  Louis. 

Irving  opens  his  Astoria  with  the  following: 
"  Two  leading  objects  of  commercial  gain,  have 
given  birth  to  wide  daring  and  enterprise  in 
the '  early  history  of  the  Americas ;  the  pre- 
cious metals  of  the  South  and  the  rich  peltries 
of  the  North."  When  he  wrote  this,  it  was  true 
of  the  localities  he  named — the  gold  was  not 
yet  an  attraction,  except  in  the  south,  and 
only  the  British  Fur  Company  in  Canada  had 
become  an  object  of  history  in  this  branch  of 
trade.  He  says,  "  While  the  fiery  and  mag- 
nificent Spaniard,  influenced  with  the  mania 
for  gold,  has  extended  his  discoveries  and  con- 
quests over  those  brilliant  countries,  scorched 
by  the  ardent  sun  of  the  tropics,  the  adroit 
Frenchman,  and  the  cool  and  calculating  Bri- 
ton, have  pursued  the  less  splendid,  but  no 
less  lucrative,  traffic  in  furs,  amidst  the  hyper- 
borean regions  of  the  Canadas,  until  they  ad- 
vanced even  within  the  Artie  Circle. 

"  These  two  pursuits  have  thus,  in  a  man- 
ner, been  the  pioneers  and  precursors  of  civil- 
ization. Without  pausing  on  the  borders, 
they  have  penetrated  at  once,  in  defiance  of 
difficulties  and  dangers,  to  the  heart  of  savage 
countries ;  laying  open  the  hidden  secrets  of 


90  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARbON. 

the  wilderness ;  leading  the  way  to  remote 
regions  of  beauty  and  fertility,  that  might 
have  remained  unexplored  for  ages,  and  beck- 
oning after  them  the  slow  and  pausing  steps 
of  agriculture  and  civilization.  It  was  the  fur 
trade,  in  fact,  that  gave  early  sustenance  and 
vitality  to  the  great  Canadian  provinces. 

"  Being  destitute  of  the  precious  metals, 
they  were  for  a  long  time  neglected  by  the 
parent  country.  The  French  adventurers, 
however,  who  had  settled  on  the  banks  of  the 
St.  Lawrence,  soon  found  that  in  the  rich  pel- 
tries of  the  interior,  they  had  sources  of  wealth 
that  might  almost  rival  the  mines  of  Mexico 
and  Peru."  The  Indians,  as  yet  unacquainted 
with  the  artificial  value  given  to  some  descrip- 
tions of  furs,  in  civilized  life,  brought  quanti- 
ties of  the  most  precious  kinds  and  bartered 
them  away  for  European  trinkets  and  cheap 
commodities.  Immense  profits  were  thus 
made  by  the  early  traders,  and  the  traffic  was 
pursued  with  avidity. 

"As  the  valuable  furs  became  scarce  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  settlements,  the  Indians 
of  the  vicinity  were  stimulated  to  take  a  wider 
range  in  their  hunting  expeditions ;  they  wero 
generally  accompanied  on  these  expeditions  by 
some  of  the  traders  or  their  dependants,  who 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOff.  97 

shared  in  the  toils  and  perils  of  the  chase,  and  at 
the  same  time,  made  themselves  acquainted  with 
the  best  hunting  grounds,  and  with  the  remote 
tribes  whom  they  encouraged  to  bring  peltries 
to  tho  settlements.  In  this  way  the  trade  aug- 
mented, and  was  drawn  from  remote  quarters 
to  Montreal.  Every  »0w  and  then  a  largo 
body  of  Ottawas,  Hurons,  and  other  tribes  who 
hunted  the  countries  bordering  on  the  great 
lakes,  would  come  down  in  a  squadron  of  light 
canoes,  laden  with  beaver  skins  and  other 
spoils  of  the  year's  hunting.  The  canoes 
would  be  unladen,  taken  on  shore,  and  their 
contents  disposed  in  order.  A  camp  of  birch- 
bark  would  be  pitched  outside  of  the  town, 
and  a  kind  of  primitive  fair  opened  with  that 
grave  ceremonial  so  dear  to  the  Indians. 

"  Xow  would  ensue  a  brisk  traffic  with  the 
merchants,  and  all  Montreal  would  be  alive 
with  naked  Indians,  running  from,  shop  to 
shop,  bargaining  for  arms,  kettles,  knives, 
axes,  blankets,  bright-colored  cloths,  and  other 
articles  of  use  or  fancy;  upon  all  which,  the 
merchants  were  sure  to  clear  two  hundred  per 
cent. 

"  Their  wants  and  caprices  being  supplied, 
they  would  take    leave,   strike    their    tents, 
7 


98  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

launch  their  canoes,  and  ply  their  way  up  the 
Ottawa  to  the  lakes." 

Later,  the  French  traders,  couriers  des  lois, 
penetrated  the  remote  forests,  carrying  such 
goods  as  the  Indians  required,  and  held  ren- 
dezvous among  them,  on  a  smaller  scale,  but 
similar  to  the  one  Carson  had  attended,  so  far 
as  the  Indian  trade  was  concerned.  But  the 
Yankee  element  of  character  preponderated 
among  the  traders  and  trappers  from  the 
States ,  besides  the  greater  difficulty  and  ex  • 
pense  necessarily  incurred  to  reach  the  hunt- 
ing grounds  by  land  than  in  canoe,  called  into 
the  work  only  men  of  energy  and  higher  skill 
than  the  employees,  mostly  French,  in  the  ser- 
vice of  the  Hudson  Bay  Fur  Company,  and  a 
score  of  smaller  parties,  each  owning  no  author- 
ity outside  itself,  adopted  the  plan  of  these  sum- 
mer encampments,  during  the  season  when  the 
fur  of  the  beaver  and  the  otter  was  not  good,  as 
an  arrangement  for  mutual  convenience ;  and 
the  Indians  of  this  more  southern  section 
availed  themselves  of  the  occasion,  for  their 
own  pleasure  and  profit,  and  to  the  advantage 
and  satisfaction  of  the  traders,  whose  prices 
ruled  high  in  proportion  to  the  difficulty  of 
transit,  as  well  as  the  monopoly  in  their  hands 
of  the  articles  deemed  necessary  to  the  trap* 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  99 

por'o  dress,  culinary  establishment,  and  outfit. 
These  consisted  of  a  woolen  shirt,  a  sash  or 
belt,  and  with  some  stockings,  coffee,  and 
black  pepper,  and  salt,  unless  he  could  sup- 
ply himself  from  the  licks  the  buffalo  visits ; 
with  tin  kettle,  and  cup,  and  frying  pan ;  tho 
accoutrements  of  the  horse,  saddle  and  pack- 
saddle,  bridle,  spurs,  and  horse-shoes;  with  ma- 
terial for  bait ;  and  last,  but  not  least,  tobacco, 
which  if  he  did  not  use,  he  carried  to  give  to 
the  Indians — made  up  not  only  the  neces- 
saries, but  the  luxuries  which  the  Indian  and 
the  white  man  indulged  in,  and  for  which,  at 
such  times,  they  paid  their  money  or  their 
furs. 

Perhaps  the  trapper  took  an  Indian  fldfe, 
and  then  she  must  be  made  fine  Avith  dress, 
denoting  the  dignity  of  her  position  as  wife  of 
a  white  man,  and  presents  must  be  given  to 
the  friends  of  his  bride.  This  was  usually  an 
expensive  luxury,  but  indulged  in  most  fre 
qucntly  by  the  French  and  Canadian  trappers, 
many  of  whom  are  now  living  quietly  upon 
tlieir  farms  in  Oregon  and  California,  and  the 
iuimer)us  valleys  of  the  West.  Indeed  we 
might  give  the  names  of  many  a  mountain 
ranger,  and  pioneer  of  note,  first  a  trapper, 
who  still  lives  surrounded  by  his  Indian  wife 


100       LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOHT. 

and  their  children,  and  finds  himself  thus  con- 
nected with  this  people,  having  their  utmost 
confidence,  chosen  the  chief  of  his  tribe,  and 
able  to  care  for  them  as  no  one  not  in  such  as 
sociation  could. 

At  almost  any  point  upon  Green  River  the 
grass  upon  the  bottom  lands  is  sufficient  for  a 
night's  encampment  for  a  small  party ;  but  at 
the  place  selected  for  the  rendezvous,  in  the 
space  of  two  or  three  miles  upon  either  side  of 
the  river,  the  bottom  spreads  out  in  a  broad 
prairie,  and  the  luxuriant  growth  of  grass, 
with  the  country  open  all  about  it,  made  the 
soot  desirable  for  a  large  encampment. 


CHAPTER   XI. 

EAKLY  in  the  summer  the  grass  is  green, 
but  later  it  is  hay  made  naturally,  root  and 
branch  dried  on  the  ground — there  is  no  sod — 
and  this,  though  less  agreeable,  is  more  nutri- 
tious for  the  animals  than  fresh  grass. 

A  scattered  growth  of  fine  old  trees  fur- 
nishes shade  at  every  camp,  and  immediately 
about  the  great  tent  they  afford  protection  from 
the  sun  to  parties  of  card  players,  or  a  "  Gro- 
cery stand,"  at  which  the  principal  article  of 
sale  is  "  whiskey  by  the  glass  ;"  and  perhaps, 
further  on  is  a  monte  table,  parties  from  sev- 
eral Indian  tribes,  and  the  pioneer  of  semi-civ- 
ilization— the  back-woodsman — has  come  in 
"  with  his  traps/'  a  fow  bags  of  flour,  and  pos- 
sibly some  cheese  and  butter,  and  the  ne\ei 
failing  cask  of  whiskey.  Perhaps  his  wagon 
is  the  grocery  stand,  to  which  we  have  just  al- 
luded. Without  extenuation,  these  encamp- 
ments were  grand  occasions  of  which  a  few  do- 

1101) 


102          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER    CARSON. 

script  ions  may  be  found  written  at  the  time  by 
men  of  science  and  intellectual  culture,  like 
Sir  Win.  Stewart,  who  traveled  upon  theso 
plains  for  pleasure,  or  the  Rev.  Samuel 
Parker,  who  happened  at  a  Green  River  reu 
clezvous,  in  1835,  while  on  his  way  to  the  Co- 
lumbia River,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Amer- 
ican Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Mis- 
sions. This  was  long  before  Brigham  Young 
came  West — before  his  scheme  of  religious 
colonization  had  its  birth. 

There  is  now — has  been  for  years — a  trading 
post  where  a  Canadian  Frenchman  and  an 
American  partner,  with  Indian  wives,  have 
provided  entertainment  or  furnished  supplies 
to  emigrants  and  Indians.  It  is  near  the 
Green  River  crossing,  on  the  road  from  the 
South  Pass  to  great  Salt  Lake  City,  via  Fort 
Bridger. 

Amid  the  motley  company  it  might  be  ex- 
pected that  quarrels  would  arise,  and  disor- 
derly conduct,  growing  out  of  the  feuds  among 
the  tribes  of  Indians.  These  were  kept  in 
abeyance  as  much  as  possible,  and  already 
Carson's  popularity  with  them  enabled  him 
to  act  the  part  of  peace- maker  between 
them  and  the  quarrelsome  wrhites,  as  well 
as  between  each  other,  for  many  of  them 


LIFE   OF    CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.          1C3 

recognized  him  as  the  brave  who  had  led 
excursions,  whose  success  they  had  felt  and 
suffered,  and  even  though  leader  of  victorious 
parties  against  themselves,  they  admired  his 
prowess  still;  for  the  party  of  Blackfeet  came 
to  the  rendezvous  under  the  protection  of  the 
white  flag,  and  for  the  time,  no  one  more  truly 
buried  the  hatchet  than  Carson,  though  just 
recovered  from  a  wound  given  by  a  party  of 
that  tribe,  which  had  nearly  cost  him  his  life, 
and  of  which  we  have  written  in  a  previous 
chapter. 

There  was  belonging  to  one  of  the  trapping 
parties  a  Frenchman  by  the  name  of  Shuman, 
known  at  the  rendezvous  as  "the  big  bully  of 
the  mountains,"  exceedingly  annoying  on  ac- 
count of  his  boasts  and  taunts,  a  constant  ex- 
citer of  tumult  and  disorder,  especially  among 
the  Indians.  Bad  enough  at  any  time,  with 
the  means  now  for  intoxication,  he  was  even 
m  o  re  d a n ger o us . 

The  habits  of  the  mountaineers,  without 
la\v  save  such  as  the  exigency  of  the  moment 
demanded,  required  a  firm,  steady  hand  to  rule. 
Carson  had  feared  the  results  of  this  man's 
lawlessness,  and  had  often  desired  to  be  rid  of 
him,  but  lie  had  not  as  yet  found  the  proper 
opportunity.  The  mischiefs  he  committed  grew 


104  LIFE   OF   CHKISTOrHER   CARSOtf. 

worse  and  worse,  and  yet  for  the  sake  of  peare 
they  were  borne  unresistingly.  At  length  an 
opportunity  offered  to  try  his  courage.  One 
day  Shuman,  boasting  of  his  exploits,  was  par- 
ticularly insolent  and  insulting  toward  all 
Americans,  whom  he  described  as  only  fit  to 
be  whipped  with  switches.  Carson  was  in  the 
crowd,  and  immediately  stepped  forward,  say- 
ing, "  I  am  an  American,  the  most  inconsider- 
able one  among  them,  but  if  you  wish  to  die,  1 
will  accept  your  challenge.' ' 

Shuman' defied  him.  He  was  sitting  upon 
his  horse,  with  his  loaded  rifle  in  his  hand. 
Carson  leaped  upon  his  horse  with  a  loaded 
pistol,  and  both  rushed  into  close  combat. 
They  fired,  almost  at  the  same  moment,  but 
Carson  an  instant  before  his  boasting  antag- 
onist. Their  horses'  heads  touched,  Shuman's 
ball  just  grazing  Carson's  cheek,  near  the  left 
eye,  and  cutting  off  some  locks  of  his  hair.  Car- 
son's ball  entered  Shuman's  hand,  came  out  at 
the  wrist,  and  passed  through  his  arm  above  the 
elbow.  The  bully  begged  for  his  life,  and  it 
was  spared ;  and  from  that  time  forward, 
Americans  Avere  no  more  insulted  by  him. 

If,  as  in  other  duels,  we  were  to  go  back  to 
remoter  causes,  and  find  in  this  too,  the  de- 
fence of  woman — a  Blackfoot  beauty — whom 


«ARSOX    WAS    IN     THE     CROWD,    AND    IMMEDIATELY     STEPPED 
FORWARD    SAYING,    "I    AM    AN    AMERICAN." 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOtf.         105 

Slmman  had  determined  to  abuse,  which  Car- 
son's interference  only  had  prevented,  for  the 
sake  of  truth,  of  honor,  and  virtue,  as  against 
insolence,  falsehood,  and  treachery,  although 
the  girl  did  belong  to  a  tribe  that  was  treach- 
erous ;  we  shall  be  but  giving  a  point  to  the 
story  that  it  needs  for  completeness,  and  show 
Carson  in  the  exalted  manliness  and  fidelity  of 
his  character. 

The  trappers  made  arrangements  at  the  ren- 
dezvous for  the  fall  hunt ;  and  the  party  who 
were  so  fortunate  as  to  secure  Carson's  ser- 
vices, went  to  the  Yellow-stone  River,  in  the 
Blackfeet  country,  but  met  with  no  success 
Crossing  through  the  Crows'  country  to  the 
Big  Horn  River,  they  met  the  party  of  Black- 
feet  returning  from  Green  River.  Carson  held 
a  parley  with  them,  as  was  his  custom  when- 
ever it  was  safe  to  go  to  an  Indian  camp.  He 
told  them  he  had  seen  none  of  their  people, 
and  that  the  tomahawk  was  buried  if  they 
were  faithful  to  him.  "  But,"  said  he,  "  the 
(•rows  are  my  friends,  and  while  I  am  with 
them,  they  must  be  yours." 

On  the  Big  Horn,  too,  their  success  was  no 
better,  and  Carson  did  not  meet  his  Crow 
friends.  On  the  Big  Snake,  too,  which  thev 
next  visited,  the  result  was  the  same. 


106  LIIE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

They  here  met  a  party  from  the  Hudson 
Bay  Company,  led  by  a  Mr.  McCoy.  Carson 
and  five  of  his  companions  accepted  the  offer 
lie  made  them,  and  went  with  him  to  the 
Humboldt  river,  trapping  with  little  suc- 
cess from  its  source  to  the  desert  where  it 
loses  itself,  and  where  the  termini  of  several 
other  large  rivers  are  all  within  a  day's  ride, 
according  to  the  statement  of  residents  at  this 
point.  Capt.  McCoy  said  to  Carson,  as  he  and 
two  of  the  company  started  off  upon  the  de- 
sert, 

"  Do  not  be  gone  longer  than  to-morrow 
night,  and  if  you  strike  a  stream  where  there 
is  beaver — there  must  be  water  between  here 
and  those  snow  mountains — we  will  trap  a  few 
days  longer." 

On  they  rode  over  the  artemisia  plain  till 
the  lake  was  out  of  view  from  an  eminence 
which  Carson  climbed ;  then  struck  a  tract  of 
country  entirely  destitute  of  every  sign  of  ani- 
mal or  vegetable  life,  with  surface  as  smooth 
as  the  floor  for  miles  in  extent,  then  broken 
by  a  ridge  a  few  feet  high,  like  the  rim  to  a 
lake,  whose  bottom  they  had  passed,  to  plunge 
immediately  upon  another  like  it,  with  per-, 
haps  a  white  and  glistening  crystalization 
spread  thinly  over  it. 


LIFE    OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  10? 

Carson  knew  he  must  be  upon  the  celebrated 
Mud  Lakes  of  which  he  had  heard,  and  of - 
which  he  had  seen  miniature  specimens  further 
east.  Over  these  lake  bottoms  of  earth,  that 
broken,  seemed  like  mingled  sand  and  ashes, 
but  which  bore  the  tread  of  their  horses,  and 
over  which  they  seemed  to  fly  rather  than  to 
step,  so  fragrant  and  exhilarating  was  the  at- 
mosphere, they  traveled  thirty  miles,  then 
struck  the  artemisia  plains  again,  only  there 
was  less  of  even  this  worthless  production  for 
the  next  ten  miles  than  he  had  seen  before  for 
long  a  distance. 

Through  a  heavy  sand,  the  weary  horses 
plod,  for  they  had  come  forty  or  fifty  miles 
beneath  a  burning  sun  without  food  and  with- 
out water.  On  they  ride,  for  rest  and  refresh- 
ment to  themselves  was  not  to  be  thought  of  till 
they  have  it  for  the  animals.  The  river  is 
gained  !  a  broad,  deep  current  of  water, 
muddy  like  that  of  the  Platte,  supplies  the 
moisture  to  the  trees,  whose  tops  ascend  only 
a  few  feet  above  the  desert  level,  and  whose 
trunks  rise  from  green  meadows  but  little 
above  the  surface  of  the  water.  The  bottom 
londs  are  narrow,  and  the  abrupt  bank  de- 
scends to  the  water  perpendicularly  twenty 
feet  or  more,  seemingly  of  clayey  earth,  so  soft. 


108  LIFE    OF   CHRISTOPHER    CARSON. 

the  water  constantly  wore  upon  it,  and  evi- 
dently the  river  channel  was  settling,  as  the 
years  advanced.  There  were  no  signs  of  bea- 
ver, and,  from  the  nature  of  the  banks,  there 
be  none,  unless  high  up  on  the  stream. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

CAPT.  McCoy  had  calculated  that  he  would 
soon  find  game  in  the  country  through  which 
his  route  lay,  and  therefore  he  had  turned  over 
to  Carson,  and  the  division  of  the  party  under 
his  command,  nearly  all  the  food  which  was 
left,  but  this  was  insufficient  to  give  them  full 
meals  for  more  than  three  days.  Their  pros- 
pect was  a  dreary  one  indeed,  for  at  the  earlier 
season  of  coming  down  the  river,  they  had 
not  half  enough  to  eat,  even  with  the  few  bea- 
ver they  had  taken,  to  add  to  the  supply, 
and  even  this  was  now  denied  them.  And  now, 
that  the  reader  may  understand  Carson's  posi- 
tion, we  invite  him  to  enjoy  with  us  a  few  of 
the  incidents  passed  through,  and  views  ob- 
served in  our  passage  up  this  river,  which  the 
untraveled  eastern  man  would  find  so  entirely 
new,  and  the  man  of  travel  and  of  letters  •would 
find  so  full  of  interest,  as  did  the  man  whose 

name  the  river  bears,  for  it  was  named  by 

(109) 


110  LIFE    OF    CHRISTOPHER    CARSON. 

Fremont,  after  Carson,  whom  he  had  learned 
to  love  and  respect,  long  before  he  reached  it, 
We  shall  speak  especially  of  the  features  of 
this  country,  common  to  so  much  that  lies  be- 
tween the  civilizations  of  the  Atlantic  and  the 
Pacific  slopes,  though  the  latter  was  not  a 
civilization ;  and  when  from  the  desert  Carson 
gazed  with  admiration  at  the  snow  mountains, 
he  surmised,  as  he  afterwards  realized  through 
hunger,  cold,  danger,  and  suffering,  that  this 
was  the  chain  of  mountains  which  separated 
him  from  California. 

At  the  station-house,  upon  the  lake,  called 
the  Sink  of  the  Humboldt,  we  were  told  that 
the  Humboldt  did  not  connect  with  this  lake 
except  in  the  spring  season,  after  the  rains ; 
and  that  for  the  last  two  years  it  had  not  been 
connected  even  at  that  time ;  and  that  in  the 
autumn  one  could  pass  between  the  lake  and 
the  limit  of  the  marsh  in  which  the  river  loses 
itself,  upon  dry  ground ;  and  that  the  sinks, 
or  the  margins  of  the  lakes  or  marshes  in 
which  the  Carson,  the  Walker,  and  the  Susan 
llivers,  neither  of  them  less  than  a  hundred 
miles  in  length,  and  some  of  them  several 
hundred,  in  the  wet  season  empty  or  lose 
themselves,  were  all  within  the  limit  of  a  sin- 
gle day's  ride,  and  in  the  direct  vicinity  of  tho 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  Ill 

desert  upon  which  the  reader  last  saw  Car- 
sun. 

It  was  the  evening  of  the  second  of  July, 
during  a  rain  storm,  (an  unusual  occurrence  at 
Ibis  season  of  the  year,  no  traveler  having 
ever  reported  a  similar  one  so  far  as  we  had 
heard,)  that,  weary,  and  wet,  and  cold,  wo 
found  our  way  in  the  dark  to  this  river  in  the 
wilderness.  The  house  of  the  traders  at  the 
sink  was  made  of  logs,  with  twro  rooms — the 
logs  having  been  drawn  from  the  mountains, 
forty  miles  distant.  There  was  no  timber  in 
sight,  and  nothing  that  was  green  except  some 
grass  about  the  lake,  which  we  were  told  was 
poison,  and  on  examining,  we  found  it  en- 
crusted with  a  crystalization  of  potash,  left  on 
it  by  the  subsiding  water  in  which  the  grass 
had  started. 

During  the  wet  season,  the  water  of  the  lake 
overflows  its  banks,  and  the  banks  of  the  river 
are  also  overflowed,  while  the  water  standing 
upon  the  surface  of  the  ground  is  strongly 
impregnated  with  potash,  not  only  near  tho 
sink,  but  far  up  the  stream,  nearly  to  its 
source,  the  same  cause  existing,  though  only  in 
occasional  spots  is  it  exhibited  to  the  same  de- 
gree as  about  the  lake.  It  is  not  improbable 
that  some  immense  coal  formation  might  have? 


112          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX. 

been  consumed  here  in  some  remote  past  age, 
though  that  is  a  matter  for  more  scientific  ex- 
amination than  becomes  this  work. 

But,  to  leave  speculation ;  the  occupants  of 
the  station,  whilom  trappers  in  the  mountains, 
furnished  barley  for  our  animals,  and  wo 
might  have  purchased  coffee,  or  a  rusty  gun, 
or  bad  whiskey,  but  little  else,  for  their  regu- 
lar supplies  for  the  emigrants  who  were  soon 
expected  to  arrive,  had  not  yet  come  in.  The 
parties  bound  east  had  passed,  and  the  Mor- 
mons, with  their  herds  of  cattle  for  the  Cali- 
fornia markets,  had  been  met  beyond  the 
desert.  A  party  of  Pah  Utah  or  Piete  In- 
dians, a  tribe  of  Diggers,  were  hanging  about 
the  encampment,  and  possibly  had  caused  the 
stampede  of  the  Mormon  oxen,  which  one  of 
their  herdsmen  had  reported  to  us  as  occurring 
here.  The  traders  on  the  plains  are  charged 
with  conniving  at  such  expeditions  of  the  In- 
dians, and  of  sharing  with  them  the  plunder. 
These  traders  may  not  have  been  privy  to  any 
thing  of  the  kind,  but  certain  it  is  they  always 
stood  ready  to  purchase  the  worn  out  stock  of 
the  overland  emigrants,  much  of  which  is 
worthless  to  cross  the  desert,  after  the  prior 
fifteen  hundred  miles  of  travel. 

This  is  made  a  lucrative  business,  as  will  be 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX.  113 

readily  imagined,  when  the  number  of  animals 
driven  over  is  taken  into  consideration,  which 
has  amounted  to  a  hundred  thousand  annually, 
by  this  route,  during  several  of  the  years  since 
the  quest  for  gold. 

The  traders  said  they  had  twenty-five  hun- 
dred horses  and  as  many  oxen,  in  charge  of 
herdsmen  in  a  mountain  valley.  Shrewd  men 
they  were,  one  of  them  with  an  eye  we  would 
not  warrant  to  look  out  from  a  kindly  soul. 

Miserable  wretches  were  these  Humboldt 
Diggers,  with  scarcely  a  trace  of  humanity  in 
their  composition,  for  they  have  not  improved 
since  Carson  first  met  them,  many  years  ago. 
The  old  chief  was  delighted  with  a  lump  of 
sugar,  which  one  of  our  party  gave  him.  He 
wore  a  long  coat  made  of  rabbit  skins,  warm 
and  durable,  strips  of  the  skin  with  the  hair 
out  being  wound  around  a  deerskin  thong, 
and  these  rolls  woven  into  a  garment,  but  the 
rest  of  the  party  were  nearly  naked. 

Passing  Lassen's  meadows  where  the  party 
lunched  at  a  spring,  indicated,  as  we  ap- 
proached, by  a  growth  of  willows,  and  striking 
upon  the  artemisia  plain  that  constitutes  the 
larger  portion  of  the  river  valley,  when  about 
fifty  miles  from  the  station,  wre  left  the  road  by 
a  blind  trail,  and  approached  the  river,  de- 
ft 


114          LIFE   OF   CHR1STOPHEK    CARSOTQ. 

scending  to  the  bottom  land  by  a  precipitous 
bluff  thirty  feet  in  height.  The  mountains 
approached  close  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
river,  probably  a  mile  distant,  and  enclosed  us 
"n  a  semi-circle,  while  the  bluff  was  lined  \\itn 
a  scattered  growth  of  alders. 

It  rained,  was  raining  violently  wrhen  we 
halted,  and  stretching  a  rope  from  alder  to 
alder,  with  a  blanket  thrown  over  it,  we  thus 
made  a  tent,  and  established  ourselves  cosily 
to  spend  here  the  nation's  Sabbath-day,  the 
4th  of  July. 

The  rain  turned  into  snow  towards  evening, 
and  covered  the  mountains  to  their  base,  but 
melting  as  it  fell  where  we  were  encamped, 
and  with  the  cooing  of  the  doves  which  filled 
the  alders,  the  croaking  of  the  frogs  in  the 
marsh  next  the  river,  and  the  patter  of  the 
rain  upon  the  bushes,  we  had  other  music — 
nature's  deep  bass — in  a  constant  roaring 
sound,  like  that  of  old  ocean  at  full  tide  on  a 
sand  beach  of  the  open  coast  of  the  Pacific ;  or 
like  the  sound  of  Niagara,  heard  half  a  mile 
away,  but  there  was  no  discoverable  cause. 

Going  a  mile  up  and  down  the  river  from 
the  camp — if  there  is  up  and  down  to  a  dead 
river — we  still  heard  the  sound,  the  same  in 
tone  and  power.  Our  Wyandotte — a  member 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.          115 

of  the  party  who  had  crossed  the  plains  with 
Col.  Fremont — suggested  that  it  was  uthe 
Humboldt  sinking." 

All  the  day  of  the  4th  of  July  we  rested 
here,  with  our  animals  in  clover,  amid  the 
snow  which  reached  even  to  the  foot  of  tlio 
mountains  opposite,  arid  the  dirge  played  for 
us  by  the  unseen  hand.  It  was  a  quiet,  still 
sweetly  sad  day — pleasant  in  memory,  and 
such  an  one  as  we  shall  never  spend  again — so 
far  from  civilized  humanity,  and  in  a  place  so 
remote  from  human  footsteps,  it  seemed  a  nat- 
ural wonder  which  had  never  been  properly 
examined  and  explained. 

Sooner  than  the  old  trappers  anticipated, 
will  the  Humboldt  be  lined  with  farms,  and 
the  little  mountain  valleys  filled  with  grazing 
herds,  and  the  church  spire  and  the  cross  upon 
an  unassuming  building  in  the  centre  of  a  six 
mile  square  prairie,  indicate  the  advance  of 
civilization.  Yet,  except  in  the  mud-lake  lo- 
calities, there  is  no  tract  of  country  that  can 
well  be  more  unpromising  than  that  about  the 
Humboldt;  and  not  many  years  will  elapse 
before  science  will  make  plain  and  palpable 
that  wonder  of  the  world,  "  the  sinking  of  the 
Humboldt " 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

THROUGH  the  country  we  have  thus  briefly 
described,  Carson  and  his  men  had  trapped 
taking  some  small  game,  intending  to  rcturij 
late  in  the  season  when  the  cold  of  this  high 
altitude,  with  the  sun  low,  was  becoming  terri- 
bly severe,  while  the  grass  was  dead,  and  the 
birds  of  passage  had  all  departed.  Their 
prospects  were  cheerless  and  unpromising,  nor 
were  they  at  all  improved  after  they  left  the 
Humboldt ;  for  their  route  lay  through  an  arte- 
misia  desert,  varied  only  by  an  occasional  lit- 
tle valley,  where  springs  of  water  in  the  early 
season  had  induced  the  growth  of  grass. 

On  reaching  Goose  Creek,  they  found  it  fro- 
zen, so  that  there  was  no  possibility  of  finding 
evren  roots,  to  satisfy  their  hunger.  Though 
to-day  this  is  the  trail  of  California  emigration, 
with  plenty  of  grass,  for  a  great  portion  of  the 

v,  in  its  season ;  now  all  was  desolate,  and 
(116) 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  117 

inured  as  they  were  to  hardship,  Carson's  men 
had  never  before  suffered  so  much  from  hun- 
ger, nor  did  their  animals  fare  much  better. 
Capt.  McCoy  had  taken  with  him  all  not 
needed  by  Carson's  party,  because  he  could 
give  them  food,  and  it  was  fortunate  for  them 
he  had  adopted  this  course. 

The  magnificent  mountain  scenery  on  the 
route  could  scarcely  excite  admiration  or  re- 
mark from  this  company  of  hungry,  toil-worn 
men  ;  even  that  unique  exhibition  of  nature's 
improvised  ideality,  done  in  stone — pyramid 
circle — with  its  pagodas,  temples,  obelisks, 
and  altars,  within  a  curiously  wrought  rock 
wall,  they  only  wished  were  the  adobe  walls 
and  houses  of  Fort  Hall.  However,  nothing 
daunted  by  the  dreary  prospect  before  them, 
they  here  bled  their  horses,  and  drank  the 
precious  draught,  well  knowing  they  were 
taking  the  wind  from  the  sails  upon  which 
they  must  rely  to  waft  them  into  port,  if  they 
ever  reached  it. 

The  next  day,  they  were  meditating  the 
slaughter  of  one  of  their  horses,  when  a  party 
of  Snake  Indians  fortunately  came  in  sight 
They  had  been  out  on  the  war  trail,  and  re- 
turning, had  little  food,  but  Carson  managed 
to  purchase  a  fat  horse,  which  they  killed  at 


118  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

once,  and  thus  managed  to  live  luxuriously 
till  they  reached  the  fort,  able  now  to  walk 
and  give  the  horses  the  advantage  of  their 
diet. 

Epicureans  of  civilization,  when  the  squearn- 
islmess  of  an  appetite,  perverted  by  too  deli- 
cate fare,  is  invited  to  such  a  repast,  may  rest 
assured  that  they  know  not  the  satisfaction 
such  fare  afforded  to  Kit  Carson  and  his  party. 
Horse  beef  was  sweeter  food  to  these  starving 
men,  than  epicures  had  ever  tasted. 

After  recruiting  for  a  few  days  at  the  fort, 
and  learning  that  there  were  large  herds  of 
the  game,  which  they  gloried  most  in  hunting, 
the  buffalo,  near  by,  Carson  and  his  party 
started  for  the  stream  on  which  they  could  be 
found,  and  were  not  long  in  discovering  a  largo 
herd  of  fine  fat  buffalo.  Stretching  lines  on 
which  to  hang  the  strips,  they  killed,  and 
dressed,  and  cut ;  and  soon  had  dried  all  the 
meat  their  animals  could  carry,  when  they  re- 
turned to  the  fort. 

Three  days  before  reaching  the  fort,  a  party 
of  Blackfeet  Indians  were  again  upon  their 
trail,  and  watching  for  their  return. 

On  the  third  morning  after  their  arrival,  just 
as  day  dawned,  two  of  the  Indians  came  past 
their  camp  to  the  corral  of  the  fort  in  which 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  119 

their  animals  were  confined,  let  down  the  bars 
and  drove  them  all  away;  the  sentinel  think- 
ing the  Indians  were  men  of  his  party  who 
had  come  to  relieve  his  watch,  had  gone  into 
camp  and  was  soundly  sleeping  before  the  ani- 
mals were  missed.  By  this  time  the  Indians 
had  driven  them  many  miles  away,  and  as  a 
similar  ruse  had  been  played  upon  the  people 
at  the  fort  a  few  days  before,  by  which  all  their 
animals  were  run  off,  there  was  no  possibility 
of  giving  chase. 

Of  course  there  was  now  no  alternative  but 
to  wait  the  return  of  Capt.  McCoy  from  Walla 
Walla,  which  he  did  in  about  four  weeks, 
bringing  animals  enough  to  supply  Carson  and 
his  party,  besides,  the  men  at  the  fort,  which 
had  been  obtained  of  the  Kiowas,  or  Kaious 
Indians,  in  Oregon.  These  Indians  range  be- 
tween the  Cascade  and  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
in  what  is  now  the  eastern  portion  of  Wash- 
ington and  Oregon  Territories,  living  by  the 
chase,  and  owning  immense  herds  of  horses, 
of  which  the  chief  of  this  tribe  owned  ten  thou- 
sand. In  this  same  locality  the  Indian  bands 
reported  by  the  parties  of  trappers  in  tho 
American  Fur  Company,  had  abundance  of 
horses,  with  which  they  hunted  deer,  "ring- 
ing or  surrounding  them,  and  running  thcrq 


120  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

down  in  a  circle."  But  while  antelope,  and 
elk,  and  deer,  as  well  as  beaver,  were  abun- 
dant, their  locality  was  not  frequented  by  tho 
buffalo,  its  ranges  being  further  toward  the 
south  and  west. 

Many  suppose  that  buffalo  never  existed  west 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains ;  but  to  attempt  a  cor- 
rection of  this  impression  with  our  readers,  is 
no  longer  necessary,  as  we  have  seen  Carson  kill- 
ing them  on  the  Salmon  River,  on  the  Green 
River,  and  lastly,  in  the  valley  of  a  stream 
that  flows  into  the  Salmon. 

From  Baird's  General  Repository,  published 
in  1857,  we  quote, 

"  It  will  perhaps  excite  surprise  that  I  in- 
clude the  buffalo  in  the  fauna  of  the  Pacific 
States,  as  it  is  common  to  imagine  that  the 
buffalo  has  always  been  confined  to  the  At- 
lantic slopes,  because  it  does  not  now  extend 
beyond  the  Rocky  mountains.  This  is  not 
true.  They  once  abounded  on  the  Pacific." 

This  animal  has  not  been  found  in  Califor- 
nia nor  in  Oregon,  west  of  the  Cascade  moun- 
tains, within  the  present  generation  of  men, 
and  the  limit  of  its  ranges,  narrowing  every 
year,  is  now  far  this  side  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains. Really  a  wild  animal,  incapable  of 
being  domesticated,  afe  the  country  is  more  and 


LIFE   OF   CHKISTOPIIER   CARSOX. 

more  traversed,  he  retires — is  killed  by  thous- 
ands by  the  hunter — and  seems  destined,  aa 
really  as  the  Indian  race,  to  become  extinct. 
Could  either  be  induced  to  adopt  the  modes  of 
life  which  residence  among  the  races  of  civil* 
izod  men  requires,  their  existence  might  be 
prolonged  perhaps  for  centuries,  but  there 
seems  to  be  no  care,  on  the  part  of  anybody 
who  has  the  power,  to  preserve  either  the  In- 
dian or  the  buffalo  as  a  distinct  race  of  man, 
and  quadruped. 

A  writer  who  reports  his  trip  from  Cali- 
.fornia  in  the  summer  of  '57,  by  Humboldt 
River  and  Fort  Laramie,  says : 

"  I  watched  for  buffalo,  expecting  to  see 
them  in  the  valleys  of  the  streams,  the  head-wa- 
ters of  the  Platte.  But  the  hundred  miles  upon 
the  Sweet- water  revealed  no  buffalo ;  upon 
the  North  Platte  above  Laramie  there  were 
none,  and  on  to  Fort  Kearney  we  looked  in 
vain  for  this  noble  game.  If  we  had  been  a 
wagon  party,  and  therefore  confined  to  the 
road,  this  would  not  have  surprised  us,  as  the 
immense  emigration  to  California  first,  to  Salt 
Lake  next,  and  the  United  States. army  follow- 
ing, might  be  supposed  to  have  driven  them 
away.  Then,  too,  Col.  Sumner  had  been 
through,  aud  with  a  war  party  of  three  hun- 


122          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

dred  mounted  riflemen,  had  followed  the  Chey- 
en  nes  from  Fort  Laramie  south  to  the  head- 
waters of  the  Arkansas.  But  \vre  frequently 
left  the  road  for  days  together,  in  pursuit  of 
game  and  the  finer  scenery  of  the  immediate 
river  valley,  or  the  hills  as  it  happened. 

"  Only  until  three  days  after  passing  Fort 
Kearney,  did  the  glad  sight  greet  us. 

"  In  the  broad  bottom — ten  miles  at  least  be- 
tween the  hills  that  shut  in  the  river  valley — 
they  were  scattered  thickly  and  quietly  grazing. 

"  In  two  hours  after  coming  in  sight  of  them, 
we  pitched  our  camp  upon  the  river  bank,  and 
were  soon  prepared  for  the  hunt.  Though  ten 
thousand  were  in  sight,  we  had  not  yet  ap- 
proached within  half  a  mile  of  one,  so  shy  are 
they,  moving  off  when  we  came  in  sight. 

"  The  Platte  was  three  quarters  of  a  mile 
wide  where  we  were  camped,  and  above  and 
below  us  were  numerous  trails  running  from 
the  river  back  into  the  hills.  These  were  like 
the  cow-paths  running  to  a  spring  in  a  New 
England  pasture.  We  camped  about  three 
o'clock,  and  soon  after  the  buffalo  upon  one 
side  of  the  stream  commenced  moving  towards 
the  river  by  these  paths,  and  following  each 
other  close,  to  wade  across  it  in  a  continuous 
line  by  half  a  dozen  paths  in  sight  from 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.          123 

where  we  were.  These  moving  lines  of  huge 
animals  were  continued  till  slumber  closed  our 
eyes,  at  ten  o'clock  in  the  evening,  and  wo 
knew  not  how  much  longer. 

"Having  no  fresh  animals,  and  only  one 
that  had  not  made  the  distance  from  the  other 
side  the  Sierra  Nevada  within  the  last  fifty 
days,  we  could  not  hunt  by  the  chase.  Ac- 
cordingly, with  nicely  loaded  double  barrelled 
rifle,  we  crept  through  the  under-brush  that 
lined  the  bank  above  us,  and  came  near  a  line 
of  buffalo  crossing  the  river,  and  choosing  our 
opportunity,  as  the  animal  pauses  from  the 
brisk  trot  before  plunging  into  the  stream,  we 
were  able  to  take  good  aim,  and  soon  had 
lodged  a  ball  in  the  breast  of  a  fine  cow,  who 
with  a  bound  leaped  into  the  water,  but  was 
not  able  to  proceed,  nor  needed  the  other  shot 
which  we  lodged  in  the  brain,  to  float  her  down 
the  stream. 

"  Calling  help,  we  had  her  dressed  directly, 
and  the  nicest  steaks  upon  the  coals  already 
kindled  at  the  camp,  and  found  them  exceed- 
ingly delicious — of  course  more  so  from  tho 
fact  that  we  had  taken  it.  Others  of  the  party 
came  in  without  success ;  some  had  shot  at  a 
buffalo,  others  had  got  a  sight  of  one,  and  at 
two  of  the  crossings  the  line  was  broken  teiu- 


124          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON 

porarily  by  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  kill  an 
animal,  but  without  hurting  him.  Most  of  us 
had  no  practice  with  this  kind  of  game,  though 
they  had  killed  grouse,  and  some  of  them  had 
shot  antelope  during  our  journey.  But  now 
their  guns  would  not  go  off,  or  they  shot  too 
high,  or  could  not  get  near  enough.  Just  at 
dark,  however,  the  old  gentleman  came  in  for 
help.  His  French  rifle — a  gun  of  Revolu- 
tionary times — had  done  execution,  and  a  big 
bull  was  the  prize  he  announced.  We  invited 
him  to  our  prepared  repast,  but  'no!  he  would 
sup  to-night  upon  his  own  game,  he  thanked 
us.'  Of  course  he  had  the  tongue  from  the  an- 
imal he  killed,  nor  were  the  tender-loin  and 
other  choice  bits  bad  eating,  and  taking  the 
tongue  ourself,  with  the  rest  of  the  party,  (of 
ten,)  we  managed  to  carry  away  in  the  morning 
nearly  all  of  the  cow  that  we  had  not  already 
eaten. 

"  All  night  long  the  bellowing  from  tho 
other  side  the  river  greeted  our  tired  senses. 
The  situation  was  novel,  and  really  in  imagi- 
nation, quite  terrific.  Would  they  return 
across  the  river  and  stampede  our  animals  ? 
We  got  a  little  sleep  before  midnight,  but  not 
much  later. 

"In  the  morning  the  buffalo  were  indeed 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  125 

returning  in  the  style  they  went,  but  as  wo 
rode  on  over  their  track,  the  lines  were  always 
broken,  and  the  animals  scattered  before  we 
could  approach  them,  and  only  once  did  we 
come  within  pistol  shot  of  any  of  them ;  nor 
did  the  rest  of  the  party  do  any  better. 

"  Of  course  we  might  have  done  it  had  we 
made  this  our  business  ;  but  we  were  hasten- 
ing from  the  El  .dorado,  after  a  four  years'  ab- 
sence from  our  homes.  So  much  for  our  ex- 
temporised buffalo  hunting.  In  twenty-four 
hours  after  striking  them,  we  had  passed  the 
buffalo,  and  saw  no  more  of  them.  As  we  esti- 
mated it,  we  had  seen  in  that  time  at  least  fifty 
thousand ;  we  had  crossed  the  trail  of  fifteen 
lines  of  them  crossing  the  river  after  we  left 
camp  this  morning." 

We  have  quoted  this  to  show  the  way  in 
which  travelers — emigrants  now — meet  the 
buffalo.  Sometimes  a  huge  drove  of  them 
overrun  an  emigrant  party;  but  this  seldom 
occurs,  nor  do  parties  often  see  more  of  them 
than  did  the  one  we  have  just  presented, 
though  usually  they  see  them  for  a  longer 
lime.  So  much  have  the  times  changed  since 
Larson  was  a  trapper. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

WITH  fresh  animals,  and  men  well  fed  and 
rested,  McCoy  and  Carson  and  all  their  parly 
soon  started  from  Fort  Hall,  for  the  rendezvous 
again  upon  Green  River,  where  they  were  de- 
tained some  weeks  for  the  arrival  of  other  par- 
ties, enjoying  as  they  best  might  the  occasion, 
and  preparing  for  future  operations. 

A  party  of  an  hundred  was  here  organized, 
with  Mr.  Fontenelle  and  Carson  for  its  leaders, 
to  trap  upon  the  Yellowstone,  and  the  head 
waters  of  the  Missouri.  It  was  known  tlat 
they  would  probably  meet  the  Blackfeet  in 
whose  grounds  they  were  going,  and  it  A\as 
therefore  arranged,  that,  while  fifty  were  to 
trap  and  furnish  the  food  for  the  party,  the 
remainder  should  be  assigned  to  guard  the 
camp  and  cook.  There  was  no  disinclination 
on  the  part  of  any  to  another  meeting  with  the 
Blackfeet,  so  often  had  they  troubled  members 

of  the  party,  especially  Carson,  who,  while  he 
(126) 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER    C1RSON.  127 

be  mananiraous  towards  an  enemy,  would 
not  turn  aside  from  his  course,  if  able  to  cope 
with  him  ;  and  now  he  was  in  a  company  which 
justly  felt  itself  strong  enough  to  punish  the 
1  thieving  Blackfeet,"  as  they  spoke  of  them, 
lie  was  anxious  to  pay  off  some  old  scores. 

They  saw  nothing,  however,  of  these  In- 
dians ;  but  afterwards  learned  that  the  small- 
pox had  raged  terribly  among  them,  and  that 
they  had  kept  themselves  retired  in  mountain 
valleys,  oppressed  with  fear  and  severe  dis- 
ease. 

The  winter's  encampment  was  made  in  this 
region,  and  a  party  of  Crow  Indians  which  was 
with  them,  camped  at  a  little  distance,  on  the 
same  stream.  Here  they  had  secured  an 
abundance  of  meat,  and  passed  the  serere 
weather  with  a  variety  of  amusements  in 
which  the  Indians  joined  them  in  their  lodges, 
made  of  buffalo  hides.  These  lodges,  very 
good  substitutes  for  houses,  are  made  in  the 
form  of  a  cone,  spread  by  the  means  of  poles 
spreading  from  a  common  centre,  where  thero 
was  a  hole  at  the  top  for  the  passage  of  the  smoke, 
These  were  often  twenty  feet  in  height,  and  as 
many  feet  in  diameter,  where  they  were  pinned 
to  the  ground  with  stakes.  In  a  large  village 
the  Indians  often  had  one  lodge  large  enough 


128  LIFE    OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX. 

to  hold  fifty  persons,  and  within  were  per 
formed  their  war  dances  around  a  fire  made 
in  the  centre.  During  the  palmy  days  of  th<j 
British  Fur  Company,  in  a  lodge  like  this  only 
made,  instead,  of  birch-bark,  Irving  says  the 
Indians  of  the  north  held  their  "  primitive 
fairs,"  outside  the  city  of  Montreal,  where  they 
disposed  of  their  furs. 

There  was  one  drawback  upon  conviviality 
for  this  party,  in  the  extreme  difficulty  of  get- 
ting food  for  their  animals ;  for  the  food  and 
fuel  so  abundant  for  themselves  did  not  suffice 
for  their  horses.  Snow  covered  the  ground, 
and  the  trappers  were  obliged  to  gather  willow 
twigs,  and  strip  the  bark  from  cottonwood 
trees,  in  order  to  keep  them  alive.  The  in- 
ner bark  of  the  cottonwood  is  eaten  by  the 
Indians  when  reduced  to  extreme  want.  Be- 
side, the  cold  brought  the  buffalo  down  upon 
them  in  large  herds,  to  share  the  nourishment 
they  had  provided  for  their  horses. 

Spring  at  length  opened,  and  gladly  they 
again  commenced  trapping ;  first  on*  the  Yel- 
lowstone, and  soon  on  the  head  waters  of  the 
."Missouri,  where  they  learned  that  the  Black- 
feet  were  recovered  from  the  sickness  of  last 
year,  which  had  not  been  so  severe  as  it  was 
reported,  and  that  they  were  still  anxious  and 


LIFE  OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARS3X,  129 

in  condition  for  a  fight,  and  were  encamped 
not  far  from  their  present  trapping  grounds. 

Carson  and  five  men  went  forward  in  ad^ 
vance  "  to  reconnoitre,"  and  found  the  village 
preparing  to  remove,  having  learned  of  the 
presence  of  the  trappers.  Hurrying  back,  a 
party,  of  forty-three  was  selected  from  the 
whole,  and  they  unanimously  selected  Carson 
to  lead  them,  and  leaving  the  rest  to  move  on 
with  the  baggage,  and  aid  them  if  it  should  be 
necessary  when  they  should  come  up  with  the 
Indians,  they  hastened  forward,  eager  for  a 
battle. 

Carson  and  his  command  were  not  long  in 
overtaking  the  Indians,  and  dashing  among 
them,  at  the  first  fire  killed  ten  of  their  braves, 
but  the  Indians  rallied,  and  retreated  in  good 
order.  The  white  men  were  in  fine  spirits, 
and  followed  up  their  first  attack  with  deadly 
result  for  three  full  hours,  the  Indians  making 
scarce  any  resistance.  K"ow  their  firing  be* 
came  less  animated  as  their  ammunition  was 
getting  low,  and  they  had  to  use  it  with  extreme 
caution.  The  Indians,  suspecting  this  from  the 
slackness  of  their  fire,  rallied,  and  with  a  tre- 
mendous ^oop  turned  upon  their  enemies. 

;^/w   Carson  and  his   company   could   use 
cheir  small  arms,  which  produced  a  terrible 

9 


130  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

effect,  and  which  enabled  them  again  to  clrhe 
back  the  Indians.  They  rallied  yet  again,  and 
charged  with  so  much  power,  and  in  such 
numbers,  they  forced  the  trappers  to  retreat. 

During  this  engagement,  the  horse  of  one 
of  the  mountaineers  was  killed,  and  fell  with 
his  whole  weight  upon  his  rider.  Carson  saw 
the  condition  of  the  man,  with  six  warriors 
rushing  to  take  his  scalp,  and  reached  the  spot 
in  time  to  save  his  friend.  Leaping  from  the 
saddle,  he  placed  himself  before  his  fallen 
companion,  shouting  at  the  same  time  for  his 
men  to  rally  around  him,  and  with  deadly  aim 
from  his  rifle,  shot  down  the  foremost  warrior 

The  trappers  now  rallied  about  Carson,  and 
the  remaining  five  warriors  retired,  without 
the  scalp  of  their  fallen  foe.  Only  two  of  them 
reached  a  place  of  safety ;  for  the  well  aimed 
tire  of  the  trappers  leveled  them  with  the 
earth. 

Carson's  horse  was  loose,  and  as  his  comrade 
was  safe,  he  mounted  behind  one  of  his  men, 
and  rode  back  to  the  ranks,  while,  by  general 
impulse,  the  firing  upon  both  sides  ceased* 
His  horse  was  captured  and  restored,  to  him, 
but  each  party,  now  thoroughly  exhausted, 
seemed  to  wait  for  the  other  to  renew  the  at- 
tack. 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  131 

While  resting  in  this  attitude,  the  other 
division  of  the  trappers  came  in  sight,  but  tho 
Indians,  showing  no  fear,  posted  themselves 
among  the  rocks  at  some  distance  from  the 
scene  of  the  last  skirmish,  and  coolly  waited 
for  their  adversaries.  Exhausted  ammunition 
had  been  the  cause  of  the  retreat  of  Carson  and 
his  force,  but  now  with  a  renewed  supply,  and 
an  addition  of  fresh  men  to  the  force,  they  ad- 
vanced on  foot  to  drive  the  Indians  from  their 
hiding  places.  The  contest  was  desperate  and 
severe,  but  powder  and  ball  eventually  con- 
quered, and  the  Indians,  once  dislodged,  scat- 
tered in  every  direction.  The  trappers  consid- 
ered this  a  complete  victory  over  the  Black- 
feet,  for  a  large  number  of  their  warriors  were 
killed,  and  many  more  .were  wounded,  while 
they  had  but  three  men  killed,  and  a  few  se- 
verely wounded. 

Fontenelle  and  his  party  now  camped  at  the 
scene  of  the  engagement,  to  recruit  their  men; 
and  bury  here  their  dead.  Afterward  they 
trapped  through  the  whole  Blackfeet  country, 
and  with  great  success;  going  where  they 
pleased  without  fear  or  molestation.  The  In 
tlians  kept  off  their  route,  evidently  having  ac- 
quaintance with  Carson  and  his  company 
enough  to  last  them  their  life  time.  With  the 


132          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHEH   CARSOX. 

small-pox  and  the  white  man's  rifles  the  war- 
riors were  much  reduced,  and  the  tribe  which 
had  formerly  numbered  thirty  thousand,  was 
already  decimated,  and  a  few  more  blows>  liko 
the  one  dealt  by  this  dauntless  band,  would 
suffice  to  break  its  spirit,  and  destroy  its  power 
for  future  evil. 

During  the  battle  with  the  trappers,  the 
women  and  children  of  the  Blackfeet  village 
were  sent  on  in  advance,  and  when  the  engage- 
ment was  over,  and  the  braves  returned  to  them 
so  much  reduced  in  numbers,  and  without  a 
single  scalp,  the  big  lodge  that  had  been  erected 
for  the  war  dance,  was  given  up  for  the  wounded, 
and  in  hundreds  of  Indian  hearts  grew  a  bit- 
terer hatred  for  the  white  man. 

An  express,  despatched  for  the  purpose,  an- 
nounced the  place  of  the  rendezvous  to  Fonte- 
nelle  and  Carson,  who  were  now  on  Green 
River,  and  with  their  whole  party  and  a  large 
stock  of  furs,  they  at  once  set  out  for  the  place 
upon  Mud  River,  to  find  the  sales  commenced 
before  their  arrival,  so  that  in  twenty  days 
they  were  ready  to  break  up  camp. 

Carson  now  organized  a  party  of  seven,  and 
proceeded  to  a  trading  post  called  Brown's 
Role,  where  he  joined  a  company  of  traders  to 
go  to  the  Navajoe  Indians.  He  found  this 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOTT.          133 

tribe  more  assimilated  to  the  white  man  than 
any  Indians  he  had  yet  seen,  having  many  fine 
horses  and  large  flocks  of  sheep  and  cattle. 
They  also  possessed  the  art  of  weaving,  and 
their  blankets  were  in  great  demand  through 
Mexico,  bringing  high  prices,  on  account  of 
their  great  beauty,  being  woven  in  flowers  with 
much  taste.  They  were -evidently  a  remnant 
of  the  Aztec  race. 

They  traded  here  for  a  large  drove  of  fine 
mules,  which,  taken  to  the  fort  on  the  South 
Platte,  realized  good  prices,  when  Carson  went 
again  to  Brown's  Hole,  a  narrow  but  pretty 
valley  about  sixteen  miles  long,  upon  the  Colo- 
rado River. 

After  many  offers  for  his  services  from  other 
parties,  Carson  at  length  engaged  himself  for 
the  winter,  to  hunt  for  the  men  at  this  fort,  and 
as  the  game  was  abundant  in  this  beautiful 
valley,  and  in  the  canon  country  further  down 
the  Colorado,  in  its  deer,  elk,  and  antelope,  re- 
minding him  of  his  hunts  upon  the  Sacra- 
mento, the  task  was  a  delightful  one  to  him. 

In  the  spring,  Carson  trapped  with  Bridger 
and  Owen's  with  passable  success,  and  went  to 
the  rendezvous  upon  Wind  River,  at  the  head 
of  the  Yellowstone,  and  from  thence,  with  a 
large  part  of  the  trappers  at  the  rendezvous, 


134          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CA11SON. 

to  the  Yellowstone,  where  they  camped  in  tho 
vicinity  for  the  winter,  without  seeing  their  old 
enemy,  the  Blackfeet  Indians,  until  mid- 
winter, when  they  discovered  that  they  were 
near  their  principal  stronghold. 

A  party  of  forty  was  selected  to  give  them 
battle,  with  Carson,  of  course,  for  their  captain. 
They  found  the  Indians  already  in  the  field,  to 
the  number  of  several  hundred,  who  made  a 
brave  resistance,  until  night  and  darkness  ad- 
monished both  parties  to  retire.  In  the  morn- 
ing when  Carson  and  his  men  went  to  the  spot 
whither  the  Indians  had  retired,  they  were 
not  to  be  found.  They  had  given  them  a  "  wide 
berth,"  taking  their  all  away  with  them,  even 
their  dead. 

Carson  and  his  command  returned  to  camp, 
where  a  council  of  war  decided  that  as  the  In- 
dians would  report,  at  the  principal  encamp- 
ment, the  terrible  loss  they  had  sustained,  and 
others  would  be  sent  to  renew  the  fight,  it  was 
wise  to  prepare  to  act  on  the  defensive,  and 
use  every  precaution  immediately ;  and  accord- 
ingly a  sentinel  was  stationed  on  a  lofty  hill 
near  by,  who  soon  reported  that  the  Indians 
were  upon  the  move. 

Their  plans  matured,  they  at  once  threw  up 
a  breastwork,  under  Carson's  direction,  and 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.          135 

waited  the  approach  of  the  Indians,  who  came 
in  slowly,  the  first  parties  waiting  for  those 
behind.  After  three  days,  a  full  thousand  had 
reached  the  camp,  about  half  a  mile  from  the 
breastwork  of  the  trappers.  In  their  war 
paint — stripes  of  red  across  the  forehead,  and 
down  either  cheek — with  their  bows  and  ar- 
rows, tomahawks,  and  lances,  this  army  of  In- 
dians presented  a  formidable  appearance  to 
the  small  body  of  trappers  who  were  opposed 
to  them. 

The  war  dance  was  enacted  in  sight  and 
hearing  of  the  trappers,  and  at  early  dawn  the 
Indians  advanced,  having  made  every  prepa- 
ration for  the  attack.  Carson  commanded  his 
men  to  reserve  their  fire  till  the  Indians  were 
near  enough  to  have  every  shot  tell ;  but  see- 
ing the  strength  of  the  white  men's  position, 
after  a  few  ineffectual  shots,  the  Indians  re- 
tired, camped  a  mile  from  them,  and  finally 
separated  into  two  parties,  and  went  away, 
leaving  the  trappers  to  breathe  more  freely, 
for,  at  the  be^t,  the  encounter  must  have  been 
of  a  desperate  character. 

They  evidently  recognized  the  leader  who 
had  before  dealt  so  severely  with  them,  in  the 
skill  with  which  the  defence  was  arranged,  and 
if  the  name  of  Kit  Carson  was  or  their  lips, 


138  LIFE   ^;F  OUUISIOPHER  CAESON. 

they  knew  him  for  both  bravery  and  magna* 
nimity,  and  had  not  the  courage  to  offer  him 
battle. 

Another  winter  gone,  saddlery,  moccasin- 
making,  lodge-building,  to  complete  the  repairs 
of  the  summer's  wars  and  the  winter's  fight, 
all  completed,  Carson  with  fifteen  men  went, 
past  Fort  Hall,  again  to  the  Salmon  River, 
and  trapped  part  of  the  season  there  and  upon 
Big  Snake,  and  Goose  Creeks,  and  selling  his 
furs  at  Fort  Hall,  again  joined  Bridger  in  an- 
other trapping  excursion  into  the  Blackfeet 
country. 

The  Blackfeet  had  molested  the  traps  of  an- 
other party  who  had  arrived  there  before  then.  t 
and  had  driven  them  away.  The  Indian  as 
sailants  were  still  near,  and  Carson  led  hiu 
party  against  them,  taking  care  to  station  him  • 
self  and  men  in  the  edge  of  a  thicket,  where 
they  kept  the  savages  at  bay  all  day,  taking  a 
man  from  their  number  with  nearly  every 
shot  of  their  well  directed  rifles.  In  vain  the 
Indians  now  attempted  to  fire  the  thicket ;  il 
would  not  burn,  and  sullenly  they  retired, 
forced  again  to  acknowledge  defeat  at  the 
hands  of  Kit  Carson,  the  "  Monarch  of  the 
Prairies." 

Carson's  party  now  joined  with  the  others, 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  137 

bat  concluding  that  they  could  not  trap  suc- 
cessfully with  the  annoyance  the  Indians  wero 
likely  to  give  them,  as  their  force  was  too 
small  to  hope  to  conquer,  they  left  this  part  of 
the  country  for  the  north  fork  of  the  Missouri, 

Now  they  were  with  the  friendly  Flatheads, 
one  of  whose  chiefs  joined  them  in  the  hunt, 
and  went  into  camp  near  them,  with  a  party  of 
his  braves.  This  tribe  of  Indians,  like  several 
other  tribes  which  extend  along  this  latitude 
to  the  Pacific,  have  the  custom  which  gives 
them  their  name,  thus  described  by  Irving,  in 
speaking  of  the  Indians  upon  the  Lower  Co- 
lumbia, about  its  mouth. 

"  A  most  singular  custom,"  he  says,  "pre- 
vails, not  only  among  the  Chinooks,  but  among 
most  of  the  tribes  about  this  part  of  the  coast, 
which  is  the  flattening  of  the  forehead.  The 
process  by  which  this  deformity  is  effected, 
commences  immediately  after  birth.  The  in- 
fant is  laid  in  a  wooden  trough,  by  way  of  cra- 
dle. The  end  on  which  the  head  reposes  is 
higher  than  the  rest.  A  padding  is  placed 
on  the  forehead  of  the  infant,  with  a  piece  of 
bark  above  it,  and  is  pressed  down  by  cords 
^hich  pass  through  holes  upon  the  sides 
of  the  trough.  As  the  tightening  of  the 
padding  and  the  pressure  of  the  head  to  the 


138          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER    CARSON. 

board  is  gradual,  the  process  is  said  not  to  bo 
attended  with  pain.  The  appearance  of  the 
infant,  however,  while  in  this  state  of  com- 
pression is  whimsically  hideous,  and  t  its  little 
black  eyes,'  we  are  told,  i  being  forced  out  by 
the  tightness  of  the  bandages,  resemble  those 
of  a  mouse  choked  in  a  trap/ 

"  About  a  year's  pressure  is  sufficient  to  pro- 
duce the  desired  effect,  at  the  end  of  which 
time,  the  child  emerges  from  its  bandages,  a 
complete  flathead,  and  continues  so  through, 
life.  It  must  be  noted,  however,  that  this 
flattening  of  the  head  has  something  in  it  of 
aristocratic  significance,  like  the  crippling  of 
the  feet  among  the  Chinese  ladies  of  quality. 
At  any  rate,  it  is  the  sign  of  freedom.  No 
slave  is  permitted  to  bestow  this  deformity 
upon  the  head  of  his  children ;  all  the  slaves, 
therefore,  are  roundheads." 


CHAPTER  XV. 

IN  the  spring,  Kit  Carson  proposed  a  differ- 
plan  of  operations ;  he  went  to  hunt  on  the 
streams  in  the  vicinage  of  his  winter's  camp 
with  only  a  single  companion.  The  Utah  In- 
dians, into  whose  country  he  came,  were  also 
friends  of  Carson,  and,  unmolested  in  his  busi- 
ness, his  efforts  were  crowned  with  abundant 
success.  He  took  his  furs  to  Robideau  fort, 
and  with  a  party  of  five  went  to  Grand  River, 
and  thence  to  Brown's  Hole  on  Green  River 
for  the  winter. 

In  the  following  spring  he  went  to  the  Utah 
country,  to  the  streams  that  flow  into  Great 
Salt  Lake  on  the  South,  which  was  rich  in  furs 
and  of  exceeding  beauty,  with  the  points  of 
grand  old  snow  mountains  ever  in  sight, 
around  him. 

From  here  he  went  to  the  New  Fork,  and  as 
it  was  afterward  described  by  a  party  for  whom 

Carson  was  the  guide,  we  shall  not  give  the 

(139) 


140          LIFE   OF   CHR1STO1KK11   CARSON, 

description  at  this  point  of  oar  narrative. 
Again  he  trapped  among  the  Utahs,  and  dis- 
posed of  his  furs  at  Robideau  Fort ;  but  now 
the  prices  did  not  please  him.  Beaver  fur  was 
at  a  discount,  and  the  trade  of  the  trapper  be- 
coming unprofitable. 

Baird,  in  his  general  report  upon  mammals, 
uses  the  following  language,  which  is  appro- 
priate in  this  connection : 

"  The  beaver  once  inhabited  all  of  the  globe 
lying  in  the  northern  temperate  zone;  yet 
from  Europe,  China,  and  all  the  eastern  por- 
tion of  the  United  States,  it  has  been  entirely 
exterminated,  and  a  war  so  universal  and  re- 
lentless nas  been  waged  upon  this  defenceless 
animal,  his  great  intelligence  has  been  so  gen- 
erally opposed  by  the  intelligence  of  man. 
it  has  seemed  certain,  unless  some  kind  provi- 
dence should  interpose,  that  the  castor,  like 
its  congener,  the  Castorides,  would  soon  K=v 
found  only  in  a  fossil  state. 

"  Happily  that  providence  did  interpose> 
through  a  certain  ingenious  somebody,  who 
first  suggested  the  use  of  silk  in  the  place  of 
fur  for  the  covering  of  hats.  The  beaver  were 
not  yet  exterminated  from  Western  America, 
and  now,  since  they  are  not  "worth  killing," 
in  those  inhospitable  regions,  where  there  is 


LIFE   OF   CHBISTCrHSE   CA.KSON.          141 

no  encouragement  for  American  enterprise  or 
cupidity,  we  may  hope  that  the  beaver  will 
there  retain  existence,  in  a  home  exclusively 
their  own. 

"The  price  of  beaver  skins  has  so  in  neb 
diminished  that  they  were  offered  to  soms  o' 
the  party  at  twenty-five  cents  by  the  bale." 

Carson  had  pursued  the  business  of  trap- 
ping for  eight  years,  and  his  life  had  been  one 
of  unceasing  toil,  of  extreme  hardship,  full 
of  danger,  yet  withal  full  of  interest.  More 
than  this,  while  the  lack  of  early  scientific 
training  had  prevented  him  from  making  that 
record  of  his  travels,  which  would  have  given 
the  world  the  benefit  of  his  explorations,  he 
had  treasured  in  his  memory  the  knowledge 
of  localities,  of  their  conditions,  and  seasons, 
and  advantages,  which  in  the  good  time  coming, 
would  enable  him  to  associate  his  labors  with 
another,  who  possessed  the  scientific  attain- 
ments which  Carson  lacked,  and  who  with 
Carson's  invaluable  assistance  would  come  to 
be  known  world  wide  as  a  bold  explorer,  and 
who,  but  for  Carson's  experience,  where  such 
experience  was  a  chief  requisite  to  success, 
might  have  failed  in  his  first  efforts  in  the 
grand  enterprise  entrusted  to  him. 

Carson   knew  the  general   features   of  tho 


142       LIFE;  OF  CHRISTOPHER  CARSON. 

country,  its  mountains,  plains,  and  rivers,  and 
the  minor  points  of  animal  and  vegetable  pro- 
ductions, from  the  head  waters  of  the  "  mon- 
arch of  rivers,"  to  the  mouth  of  the  Colorado, 
and  from  the  southern  Arkansas  to  the  Colum- 
bia, better,  perhaps,  than  any  one  living, 
though  yet  but  twenty-five  years  of  age. 

We  left  Carson  at  Robideau  Fort,  tirec^  of 
the  pursuit  of  trapping,  as  soon  as  it  had  be- 
come unprofitable,  and  while  there,  he  arranged 
with  three  or  four  other  trappers,  to  come 
down  to  Bent's  Fort.  The  trip  was  like  others 
made  at  this  season,  through  a  country  where 
the  rifle  would  supply  food  for  the  party,  and 
arriving  at  Bent's  Fort,  where  his  name  was 
already  well-known,  Carson  could  not  long  be 
idle.  He  engaged  himself  to  Messrs.  Bent 
and  St.  Vrain,  as  hunter  to  the  fort,  preferring 
this  by  far  to  the  idea  of  seeking  employment 
nearer  civilized  life.  Indeed  no  situation 
could  have  pleased  him  better,  if  we  may 
j  udge  from  the  fact  that  he  continued  in  it  for 
eight  years,  and  until  the  connection  with  his 
^mployers  was  broken  by  the  death  of  one  of 
the  partners,  Col.  Bent. 

Gov.  Bent,  since  appointed  to  the  office  of 
chief  magistrate  of  New  Mexico,  by  the  United 
States  Grovernir  ent,  had  been  killed  by  Mexi 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  143 

can  Indians,  and  was  universally  mourned  by 
Americans  and  Indians  wherever  he  was 
known.  Mr.  St.  Vrain,  the  other  partner,  was 
active  during  the  Mexican  war,  since  the  date 
i)f  which  we  write,  still  lives,  and  is  esteemed, 
as  a  father,  by  many  an  early  mountaineer. 
Carson  owed  him  gratitude  for  kindly  sympa- 
thy and  words  of  counsel,  when  yet  a  youth  he 
was  commencing  his  mountain  life,  and  Dr, 
Peters,  the  first  biographer  of  Kit  Carson, 
dedicates  his  book  to  Col.  St.  Vrain,  asserting 
that  he  was  the  first  to  discover  and  direct 
Carson's  talents  to  the  path  in  which  they  were 
employed.  For  both  of  these  gentlemanly 
proprietors,  Carson  cherished  a  warm  friend- 
ship, nor  was  there  ever  an  unpleasant  occur- 
rence between  them. 

When  game  was  plenty,  he  supplied  the 
forty  mouths  to  be  filled  with  ease,  but  when 
it  was  scarce,  his  task  was  sometimes  difficult, 
but  skill  and  experience  enabled  him  to 
triumph  over  every  obstacle. 

It  is  not  strange  that  with  such  long  experi- 
ence Carson  became  the  most  skillful  of  hunt- 
ers, and  won  the  name  of  the  "  Nestor  of  tho 
Rocky  Mountains."  Among  the  Indians  ho 
had  earned  the  undisputed  title  of  "  Monarch 
of  the  Prairies." 


144  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER    CARSON". 

t 

But  while  lie  killed  thousands  of  elk,  deer, 
and  antelope,  nor  disdained  the  rabbit  and  the 
grouse,  and  took  the  wild  goose  on  the  wing, 
of  all  the  game  of  beast  or  bird,  he  liked  the 
best  to  hunt  the  buffalo,  for  there  was  an  ex- 
citement in  the  chase  of  that  noble  animal 
which  aroused  his  spirits  to  the  highest  pitch 
of  excitement. 

Assuredly,  Christopher  Carson's  is  "  a  life 
out  of  the  usual  routine,  and  checkered  with 
adventures  which  have  sorely  tested  the  cour- 
age and  endurance  of  this  wonderful  man.'7 
Col.  St.  Vrain,  in  the  preface  to  Peters'  Life 
of  Carson,  says, 

"  Entering  upon  his  life  work  at  the  age  of 
seventeen,  choosing  now  to  think  for  himself, 
nor  follow  the  lead  of  those  who  would  detain 
him  in  a  quiet  life,  while  he  felt  the  restless 
fire  '  in  his  bones,'  that  forbade  his  burying  his 
energy  in  merely  mechanical  toil,  he  had  yet 
been  directed  in  his  choice,  by  the  fitness  for 
it  the  pursuits  of  youth  had  given,  and  spurn- 
ing the  humdrum  monotony  of  the  shop,  gave 
hi:i  self  entirely  to  what  would  most  aid  him 
in  attaining  the  profession  he  had  chosen.  We 
must  admire  such  spirit  in  a  youth,  for  it  au* 
gurs  well  for  the  energy  and  will  power  of  the 
manhood ;  therefore,  when  the  biographer  says 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  145 

of  Christopher  Carson,  that  the  neighbors  who 
knew  him,  predicted  an  uncommon  life  in  the 
child  with  whom  they  hunted,  and  conceded  to 
him  positions,  as  well  as  privileges,  that  were 
not  accorded  to  common  men,  with  his  life  till 
thirty-three  before  us,  we  feel  that  he  has  ful- 
filled the  hope  of  early  promise,  with  a  noble 
manhood." 

We  have  followed  Carson's  pathway,  with- 
out much  of  detail,  to  the  localities  where  he 
practised  the  profession  he  had  chosen,  until 
we  saw  him  leave  it  because  it  ceased  longer 
to  afford  compensation  for  his  toil,  and  dur- 
ing as  long  a  period  we  have  written  of  his 
quiet  pursuit  of  the,  to  him,  pleasant,  but  la- 
borious life  of  a  hunter ;  unless  we  must  class 
the  latter  eight  years  with  the  former,  and 
assume  each  as  a  part  of  the  profession  he  had 
chosen. 

In  all,  with  perhaps  the  exception  of  a  few 
weeks  at  Santa  Fe,  when  still  in  his  minority, 
we  have  found  him  ever  strong  to  resist  the 
thousand  temptations  to  evil  with  which  his 
pathway  was  beset,  and  which  drew  other  men 
away.  Strong  ever  in  the  maintenance  of  the 
integrity  of  his  manhood,  even  when  the  con- 
vivial circle  and  the  game  had  a  brief  fas- 
cination for  him,  they  taught  him  the  lesson 
10 


146          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOJN. 

which  he  needed  to  learn,  that  only  by  earnest 
resistance,  can  evil  be  overcome ;  and  thus  he 
was  enabled  to  admonish  others  against  those 
temptations  which  had  once  overcome  even 
his  powers  of  resistance;  and  so  he  learned  to 
school  himself  to  the  idea,  that  good  comes 
ever  through  the  temptation  to  evil  to  all 
those  who  have  the  courage  to  extract  it. 

We  have  followed  him  up  and  down  all  the 
streams  of  our  great  central  western  wilds,  and 
indicated  the  store  of  geographic  knowledge 
which  he  had  acquired  by  hard  experience  be- 
fore they  were  known  so  far  to  any  one  be- 
sides ;  and  then  for  eight  years  more  we  have 
seen  that  this  knowledge  was  digested  and  re- 
viewed in  the  social  circle  with  other  moun- 
tain trappers,  and  beside  the  lonely  mountain 
river,  and  'neath  the  wild,  steep  cliff;  or  on 
the  grassy  bottom,  or  the  barren  plain,  and  in 
the  less  sterile  places  where  the  sage  hen  found 
a  covert,  and  up  among  the  oak  openings,  and 
in  the  gigantic  parks,  where,  as  a  hunter,  he 
revisited  old  haunts. 

In  all  his  toilsome  and  adventurous  enter- 
prises, while  he  sought  to  benefit  himself,  ho 
never  turned  away,  nor  failed  to  lend  a  help- 
ing hand  to  a  needy,  suffering  brother,  or  to 
encourage  one  who  needed  such  a  lesson,  to 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  147 

turn  his  youth  to  the  most  account ;  and  if  aft'ec* 
tionate  regard  is  a  recompense  for  such  service, 
he  had  his  compensation,  as  he  passed  along 
the  path  he  had  marked  out  for  himself,  not 
from  the  white  man  alone,  but  from  the  In- 
dian who  everywhere  came  to  look  upon  Kit 
Carson  as  his  friend. 

The  Camanches,  the  Arapahoes,  the  Utahs, 
and  the  Cheyennes,  besides  several  smaller 
tribes,  knew  him  personally  in  the  hunt,  and 
he  had  sat  by  their  camp  fires,  and  dandled 
their  children,  and  sung  to  them  the  ditty, 

"  What  makes  the  lanib  love  Mary  so  ? 

The  eager  children  cry ; 
Why  Mary  loves  the  lamb,  you  know, 
And  that's  the  reason  why." 

The  Indians  feared,  and  reverenced,  and 
loved  him,  and  that  this  latter  may  be  proved 
to  the  reader  we  relate  the  following  story  of 
private  history,  nor  Avill  it  be  esteemed  out  of 
taste : 

The  powerful  Sioux  had  come  from  the 
north  beyond  their  usual  hunting  grounds, 
and  had  had  skirmishes  with  several  Indian 
bands,  some  of  whom  sent  for  Carson  to  the 
Upper  Arkansas  to  come  over  and  help  them 
drive  back  the  Sioux.  As  the  larder  at  the 
fort  was  full,  he  consented  to  go  with  the  war 


148          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

painted  Camanche  messengers  to  a  camp  of 
their  tribe,  united  with  a  band  of  Arapahoes 
They  told  him  the  Sioux  had  a  thousand  war- 
riors and  many  rifles,  and  they  feared  them, 
but  knew  that  the  "  Monarch  of  the  Prairies" 
could  overcome  them.  Carson  sat  in  council 
with  the  chiefs,  and  finally,  instead  of  encour- 
aging them  to  fight,  persuaded  them  to  peace, 
and  acted  so  successfully  the  part  of  mediator, 
that  the  Sioux  consented  to  retire  from  the 
hunting  grounds  of  the  Camanches  when  the 
season  was  over,  and  they  separated  without  a 
collision. 

It  was  while  engaged  as  hunter  for  Messrs. 
Bent  and  St.  Vrain,  Carson  took  to  himself  an 
Indian  wife,  by  whom  he  had  a  daughter  still 
living,  and  who  forms  the  connecting  link  be- 
tween his  past  hardships,  and  his  present 
greatness  ;  for  that  he  is  emphatically  a  great 
man,  the  whole  civilized  world  has  acknow- 
ledged. 

The  mother  died  soon  after  her  birth,  and 
Carson  feeling  that  his  rude  cabin  was  scarcely 
the  place  to  rear  his  child,  determined,  when 
of  a  suitable  age,  to  take  her  to  St.  Louis,  and 
secure  for  her  those  advantages  of  education 
which  circumstances  had  denied  to  him ;  and 
accordingly,  when  his  engagement  at  the  fort 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.          149 

had  expired,  he  determined  to  go  to  St.  Louis 
for  that  purpose,  embracing  on  the  route  the 
opportunity  of  visiting  the  home  of  his  boy- 
hood, which  he  had  not  seen  for  sixteen  years. 

Of  course  he  found  everything  changed. 
Many  of  those  whom  he  had  known  as  men 
And  hop 'Is  of  families,  were  now  grown  old, 
while  more  had  died  off;  but  by  those  to  whom 
he  was  made  known,  he  was  recognized  with  a 
heartiness  of  welcome  which  brought  tears  to 
his  eyes,  though  his  heart  was  saddened  at  the 
changes  which  time  had  wrought.  His  fame 
had  preceded  him,  and  his  welcome  was  there- 
fore doubly  cordial,  for  he  had  more  than  veri- 
fied the  promise  of  his  youth. 

Thence  he  proceeded  to  St.  Louis,  with  the 
intention  of  placing  his  daughter  at  school,  but 
here,  to  his  great  amazement,  he  found  himself 
a  lion ;  for  the  advent  of  such  a  man  in  such  a 
city,  which  had  so  often  rung  with  his  deeds 
of  daring  and  suffering,  could  not  be  per- 
mitted to  remain  among  its  citizens  unknown 
or  unrecognized.  He  was  courted  and  feted 
and  though  gratified  at  the  attentions  showered 
upon  him,  found  himself  so  thoroughly  out  of 
his  element,  that  he  longed  to  return  to  more 
pleasant  and  more  familiar  scenes,  his  old 
hunting  grounds. 


150  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

Having  accomplished  the  object  of  his  visit 
lo  St.  Louis,  in  placing  his  daughter  under 
proper  guardianship,  he  left  the  city,  carrying 
with  him  pleasing,  because  merited  remem- 
brances of  the  attentions  paid  to  him,  and 
leaving  behind  him  impressions  of  the  most 
favorable  character. 

Soon  after  he  reached  St.  Louis,  he  had  the 
good  fortune  to  fall  in  with  Lieut.  Fremont, 
who  was  there  organizing  a  party  for  the  ex- 
ploration of  the  far  western  country,  as  yet 
unknown,  and  who  was  anxiously  awaiting  the 
arrival  of  Captain  Drips,  a  well  known  trader 
and  trapper,  who  had  been  highly  recom- 
mended to  him  as  a  guide. 

Kit  Carson's  name  and  fame  were  familiar 
as  household  words  to  Fremont,  and  he  gladly 
availed  himself  of  his  proffered  services  in 
lieu  of  those  of  Capt.  Drips.  It  did  not  take 
long  for  two  such  men  as  John  C.  Fremont 
and  Kit  Carson  to  become  thoroughly  ac- 
quainted with  each  other,  and  the  accidental 
meeting  at  St.  Louis  resulted  in  the  cementing 
of  a  friendship  which  has  never  been  impaired, 
— won  as  it  was  on  the  one  part  by  fidelity, 
truthfulness,  integrity,  and  courage,  united  to 
vast  experience  and  consummate  skill  in  the 
prosecution  of  the  duty  he  had  assumed — on  the 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.          151 

other  by  every  quality  which  commands  honour, 
regard,  esteem,  and  high  personal  devotion. 

And  now  Carson's  life  has  commenced  in 
earnest,  for  heretofore  he  has  only  been  fitting 
himself  to  live.  His  name  is  embodied  in  the 
archives  of  our  country's  history,  and  no  one 
has  been  more  ready  to  accord  to  him  the  credit 
he  so  well  earned,  as  has  he  who  had  the  good 
fortune  to  secure,  at  the  same  time,  the  services 
of  the  most  experienced  guide  of  his  day,  and 
the  devotion  of  a  friend. 

Lieut.  Fremont  had  instructions  to  explore 
and  report  upon  the  country  lying  between 
the  frontiers  of  Missouri  and.  the  South  Pass 
in  the  Rocky  Mountains,  on  the  line  of  the 
Kansas  and  Great  Platte  Rivers,  and  with  his 
party,  leaving  St.  Louis  on  the  22nd  of  May, 
1842,  by  steamboat  for  Chouteau's  Landing 
on  the  Missouri,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Kansas, 
at  a  point  twelve  miles  beyond  at  Chouteau's 
trading  post,  he  encamped  there  to  complete 
lus  arrangements  for  this  important  expedition. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

FREMONT  was  delayed  several  days  at  Chou- 
teau's  Landing,  by  the  state  of  the  weather, 
which  prevented  the  necessary  astronomical 
observations,  but  finally  all  his  arrangements 
being  completed,  and  the  weather  permitting, 
the  party  started  in  the  highest  spirit,  and 
filled  with  anticipations  of  an  exciting  and  ad- 
venturous journey. 

He  had  collected  in  the  neighborhood  of  Si, 
Louis  twenty-one  men,  principally  Creole  am 
Canadian  voyageurs,  who  had  become  familia. 
with  prairie  life  in  the  service  of  the  fur  com* 
panics  in  the  Indian  country.  Mr.  Charles 
Preuss,  a  native  of  Germany,  was  his  assistant 
in  the  topographical  part  of  the  survey.  L. 
Maxwell,  of  Kaskaskia,  had  been  engaged  as 
hunter,  and  Christopher  Carson  as  guide. 

Mr.  Cyprian  Chouteau,  to  whose  kindness, 
during  their  stay  at  his  house,  all  were  much 

indebted,  accompanied  them  several  miles  OD 
(152) 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  153 

their  way,  until  they  met  an  Indian,  whom  he 
had  engaged  to  conduct  them  on  the  first  thirty 
or  forty  miles,  where  he  was  to  consign  them 
to  the  ocean  prairie,  which  stretched,  without 
interruption,  almost  to  the  base  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains. 

During  the  journey,  it  was  the  customary 
practice  to  encamp  an  hour  or  two  before  sun- 
set, when  the  carts  were  disposed  so  as  to  form 
a  sort  of  barricade  around  a  circle  some  eighty 
yards  in  diameter.  The  tents  were  pitched, 
and  the  horses  hobbled  and  turned  loose  to 
graze ;  and  but  a  few  minutes  elapsed  before 
the  cooks  of  the  messes,  of  which  there  were 
four,  were  busily  engaged  in  preparing  the 
evening  meal.  At  nightfall,  the  horses,  mules, 
and  oxen,  were  driven  in  and  picketed — that 
is,  secured  by  a  halter,  of  which  one  end  was 
tied  to  a  small  steel-shod  picket,  and  driven  into 
the  ground ;  the  halter  being  twenty  or  thirty 
feet  long,  which  enabled  them  to  obtain  a  lit- 
tle food  during  the  night.  When  they  had 
reached  a  part  of  the  country  where  such  a 
precaution  became  necessary,  the  carts  being 
regularly  arranged  for  defending  the  camp, 
guard  was  mounted  at  eight  o'clock,  consist- 
ing of  three  men,  who  were  relieved  every  two 
hours  j  the  morning  watch  being  horse  guard 


154  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

for  the  clay.  At  daybreak,  the  camp  was 
roused,  the  animals  turned  loose  to  graze,  and 
breakfast  generally  over  between  six  and 
seven  o'clock,  when  they  resumed  their  march, 
making  regularly  a  halt  at  noon  for  cne  or 
two  hours.  Such  was  usually  the  order  jf  the 
day,  except  when  accident  of  country  forced 
a  variation,  which,  however,  happened  but 
rarely. 

They  reached  the  ford  of  the  Kansas  late  in 
the  afternoon  of  the  14th,  where  the  river  was 
two  hundred  and  thirty  yards  wide,  and  com- 
menced immediately  preparations  for  crossing. 
The  river  had  been  swollen  by  the  late  rains, 
and  was  sweeping  by  with  an  angry  current, 
yellow  and  turbid  as  the  Missouri.  Up  to 
this  point,  the  road  traveled  was  a  remarka- 
bly fine  one,  well  beaten  and  level — the  usual 
road  of  a  prairie  country.  By  this  route,  the 
ford  was  one  hundred  miles  from  the  mouth 
of  the  Kansas  river,  on  reaching  which  several 
mounted  men  led  the  way  into  the  stream,  to 
swim  across.  The  animals  were  driven  in  after 
them,  and  in  a  few  minutes  all  had  reached 
the  opposite  bank  in  safety,  with  the  exception 
of  the  oxen,  which  swam  some  distance  down 
the  river,  and,  returning  to  the  right  bank, 
were  not  got  over  until  the  next  morning.  In 


LIFE   OF   CHRiSTOPIIER   CAHSOX.  155 

the  meantime,  the  carts  had  been  unloaded 
and  dismantled,  and  an  India-rubber  boat, 
which  had  been  brought  for  the  survey  of  the 
Platte  River,  placed  in  the  water.  The  boat 
was  twenty  feet  long  and  five  broad,  and  on  it 
were  placed  the  body  and  wheels  of  a  carl, 
with  the  load  belonging  to  it,  and  three  men 
with  paddles. 

The  velocity  of  the  current,  and  the  incon- 
venient freight,  rendering  it  difficult  to  be 
managed,  Basil  Lajeunesse,  one  of  the  best 
swimmers,  took  in  his  teeth  a  line  attached  to 
the  boat,  and  swam  ahead  in  order  to  reach  a 
footing  as  soon  as  possible,  and  assist  in  draw- 
ing her  over.  In  this  manner,  six  passages 
had  been  successfully  made,  and  as  many  carts 
with  their  contents,  and  a  greater  portion  of  the 
party,  deposited  on  the  left  bank ;  but  night 
was  drawing  near,  and  in  his  great  anxiety  to 
complete  the  crossing  before  darkness  set  in, 
he  put  on  the  boat,  contrary  to  the  advice  of 
Carson,  the  last  two  carts  with  their  loads. 
The  consequence  was,  the  boat  was  capsized, 
and  everything  on  board  was  in  a  moment 
floating  down  stream.  They  were  all,  how- 
ever, eventually  recovered,  but  not  without 
great  trouble.  Carson  and  Maxwell,  who  had 
beon  in  the  water  nearly  all  the  succeeding  day, 


156          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

searching  for  the  lost  articles,  were  taken  so 
ill  in  consequence  of  the  prolonged  exposure, 
the  party  was  obliged  to  lie  by  another  day  to 
enable  them  to  recruit,  for  to  proceed  without 
them  would  have  been  folly. 

The  dense  timber  which  surrounded  their 
camp,  interfering  with  astronomical  observa- 
tions, and  the  wet  and  damaged  stores  requir- 
ing exposure  to  the  sun,  the  tents  were  struck 
early  the  next  day  but  one  after  this  disaster, 
and  the  party  moved  up  the  river  about  seven 
miles,  where  they  camped  upon  a  handsome 
open  prairie,  some  twenty  feet  above  the 
water,  and  where  the  fine  grass  afforded  a  lux- 
urious repast  to  the  weary  animals.  They  lay 
in  camp  here  two  days,  during  which  time  the 
men  were  kept  busy  in  drying  the  provisions, 
painting  the  cart  covers,  and  otherwise  com- 
pleting their  equipage,  until  the  afternoon 
when  powder  was  distributed  to  them,  and 
they  spent  some  hours  in  firing  at  a  mark,  as 
they  were  now  fairly  in  the  Indian  country, 
and  it  began  to  be  time  to  prepare  for  tho 
chances  of  the  wilderness. 


CHAPTER  XVII, 

LEAVING  the  river  bottom,  the  road 
was  the  Oregon  trail,  past  Fort  Laramie,— ran 
along  the  uplands,  over  a  rolling  country, 
upon  which  were  scattered  many  boulders  oi 
red  sand-stone,  some  of  them  of  several  tons 
weight ;  and  many  beautiful  plants  and  flowers 
enlivened  the  prairie.  The  barometer  indi- 
cated fourteen  hundred  feet  above  the  level  of 
the  sea,  and  the  elevation  appeared  to  have  its 
influence  on  vegetation. 

The  country  became  more  broken,  rising 
still  and  covered  everywhere  with  fragments 
of  silicious  limestone,  strewn  over  the  earth 
like  pebbles  on  the  sea  shore  ;  especially  upcn 
the  summits  and  exposed  situations;  and  in 
these  places  but  few  plants  grew,  while  in  the 
creek  bottoms,  and  ravines,  a  great  variety  of 
plants  flourished. 

For  several  days  they  continued  their  jour- 
ney, annoyed  only  by  the  lack  of  water,  and 

(157) 


158  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

at  length  reached  the  range  of  the  Pawnees 
who  infested  that  part  of  the  country,  stealing 
horses  from  companies  on  their  way  to  the 
mountains,  and  when  in  sufficient  force,  openly 
attacking  them,  and  subjecting  them  to  various 
insults;  and  it  was  while  encamped  here,  that 
a  regular  guard  was  mounted  for  the  first  time, 
but  the  night  passed  over  without  annoyance. 

Speaking  of  the  constant  watchfulness  re- 
quired when  in  the  neighborhood  of  hostile  or 
thieving  Indians,  Fremont  says, 

"  The  next  morning  we  had  a  specimen  of 
the  false  alarms  to  which  all  parties  in  these 
wild  regions  are  subject.  Proceeding  up  the 
valley,  objects  were  seen  on  the  opposite  hills, 
which  disappeared  before  a  glass  could  be 
brought  to  bear  upon  them.  A  man,  who  was 
a  short  distance  in  the  rear,  came  spurring  up 
in  great  haste,  shouting,  Indians !  Indians ! 
He  had  been  near  enough  to  see  and  count 
them,  according  to  his  report,  and  had  made 
out  twenty-seven.  I  immediately  halted  ;  arms 
were  examined  and  put  in  order;  the  usual 
preparations  made ;  and  Kit  Carson,  springing 
upon  one  of  the  hunting  horses,  crossed  the 
river,  and  galloped  off  into  the  opposite 
prairies,  to  obtain  some  certain  intelligence  of 
their  movements. 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSO1NT.  159 

"  Mounted  on  a  fine  horse,  without  a  saodle, 
and  scouring  bareheaded  over  the  prairies,  Kii 
was  one  of  the  finest  pictures  of  a  horseman  1 
have  ever  seen.  A  short  time  enabled  him  to 
(ibcovcr  that  the  Indian  war  party  of  twenty- 
seven  consisted  of  six  elk,  who  had  been 
gazing  curiously  at  our  caravan  as  it  passed 
by,  and  were  now  scampering  off  at  full  speed. 
This  was  our  first  alarm,  and  its  excitement 
broke  agreeably  on  the  monotony  of  the  day. 
At  our  noon  halt,  the  men  were  exercised  at  a 
target;  and  in  the  evening  we  pitched  our 
tents  at  a  Pawnee  encampment  of  last  July. 
They  had  apparently  killed  buffalo  here,  as 
many  bones  were  lying  about,  and  the  frames 
where  the  hides  had  been  stretched  were  yet 
standing." 

Leaving  the  fork  of  the  "  Blue,"  upon  a  high 
dividing  ridge,  in  about  twenty-one  miles  they 
reached  the  coast  of  the  Platte,  or  Nebraska 
River  as  it  is  called,  a  line  of  low  hills,  or  the 
break  from  the  prairie  to  the  river  bottom. 
Cacti  here  were  numerous,  and  the  amorplia, 
remarkable  for  its  large  and  luxuriant  purplo 
clusters,  was  in  full  bloom.  From  the  foot  of 
the  coast,  two  miles  across  the.  level  bottom, 
brought  them  to  the  shore  of  the  river  twenty 
miles  below  the  head  of  Grand  Island,  and 


160  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSt  N. 

more  than  three  hundred  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Kansas.  The  elevation  of  the  Platte  valley 
here  was  about  two  thousand  feet  above  the 
level  of  the  sea. 

The  next  day  they  met  a  party  of  fourteen, 
*  ho  had  started  sixty  days  before  from  Fort 
Laramie,  in  barges  laden  with  furs  for  the 
American  Fur  Company,  hoping  to  come  down 
the  Platte  without  difficulty,  as  they  left  upon 
the  annual  flood,  and  their  boats  drew  only 
nine  inches  of  water.  But  at  Scott's  bluffs^ 
one  hundred  and  thirty  miles  below  Fort  Lar- 
amie,  the  river  became  so  broad  and  shallow, 
and  the  current  so  changeful  among  the  sand- 
bars, that  they  abandoned  their  boats  and 
cached  their  cargoes,  and  were  making  the  rest 
of  their  journey  to  St.  Louis  on  foot,  each  with 
a  pack  as  large  as  he  could  carry. 

In  the  interchange  of  news,  and  the  re- 
newal of  old  acquaintanceships,  they  found 
wherewithal  to  fill  a  busy  hour.  Among 
them  Fremont  had  found  an  old  companion 
on  the  northern  prairie,  a  hardened  and  hardly 
served  veteran  of  the  mountains,  who  had 
been  as  much  hacked  and  scarred  as  an  old 
moustache  of  Napoleon's  "  old  guard."  He 
flourished  in  the  sobriquet  of  La  Tulipe,  and  his 
real  name  no  one  knew.  Finding  that  he  was 


LIFE    OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX. 


to  the  Stales  only  because  his  company 
was  bound  in  that  direction,  and  that  he  was 
rather  more  willing  to  return  with  Fremont, 
Uo  was  taken  again  into  his  service. 

A  few  days  more  of  travel,  whose  monotony 
was  not  relieved  by  any  incident  worth  nar- 
rating, brought  the  party  in  sight  of  the  buf- 
falo, swarming  in  immense  numbers  over  the 
plains,  where  they  had  left  scarcely  a  blade  of 
grass  standing.  "  Mr.  Preuss,"  says  Fremont, 
"  who  was  sketching  at  a  little  distance  in  tho 
rear,  had  at  first  noted  them  as  large  groves 
of  timber.  In  the  sight  of  such  a  mass  of  life, 
the  traveler  feels  a  strange  emotion  of  gran- 
deur. We  had  heard  from  a  distance  a  dull 
and  confused  murmuring,  and  when  we  came 
in  view  of  their  dark  masses,  there  was  not 
one  among  us  who  did  not  feel  his  heart  beat 
quicker.  It  was  the  early  part  of  the  day, 
when  the  herds  are  feeding;  and  everywhere 
they  were  in  motion.  Here  and  there  a  huge 
old  bull  was  rolling  in  the  grass,  and  clouds 
of  dust  rose  in  the  air  from  various  parts  of 
the  bands,  each  the  scene  of  some  obstinate 
tiirht.  Indians  and  buffalo  make  the  poetry 
and  life  of  the  prairie,  and  our  camp  was  full 
of  their  exhilaration.  In  place  of  the  quiet 
monotony  of  the  march,  relieved  only  by  tho 


162          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX. 

cracking  of  the  whip,  and  an  '  avance  done  !  en- 
fant de  c/arce  /'  shouts  and  songs  resounded 
from  every  part  of  the  line,  and  our  evening 
camp  was  always  the  commencement  of  a  feast, 
which  terminated  only  with  our  departure  on 
the  following  morning.  At  any  time  in  the 
night  might  be  seen  pieces  of  the  most  delicate 
meat,  roasting  en  appolas,  on  sticks  around  the 
fire,  and  the  guard  were  never  without  com- 
pany. With  pleasant  weather,  and  no  eneirrv 
to  fear,  an  abundance  of  the  most  excellent 
meat,  and  no  scarcity  of  bread  or  tobacco,  they 
were  enjoying  the  oasis  of  a  voyageur's  life." 

Three  cows  were  killed  on  that  day,  but  a 
serious  accident  befell  Carson  in  the  course  of 
the  chase,  which  had  nearly  cost  him  his  life 
Kit  had  shot  one,  and  was  continuing  the 
chase,  in  the  midst  of  another  herd,  when  his 
horse  fell  headlong,  but  sprang  up  and  joined 
the  flying  band.  Though  considerably  hurt, 
he  had  the  good  fortune  to  break  no  bones ; 
and  Maxwell,  who  was  mounted  on  a  fleet 
hunter,  captured  the  runaway  after  a  hard 
chase.  He  was  on  the  point  of  shooting  him, 
to  avoid  the  loss  of  his  bridle,  (a  handsomely 
mounted  Spanish  one,)  when  he  found  that  his 
horse  was  able  to  come  up  with  him. 

This  mishap,  however,  did   not   deter   Kit 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX.          103 

from  his  favorite  pursuit  of  buffalo  hunt  ing. 
for  on  the  following  day,  notwithstanding  his 
really  serious  accident,  we  find  him  ready  and 
eager  for  another  chase.  Fremont  in  his  nar- 
rative thus  relates  the  occurrence  : — 

"As  we  were  riding  quietly  along  the  bank, 
a  grand  herd  of  buffalo,  some  seven  or  eight 
hundred  in  number,  came  crowding  up  from 
the  river,  where  they  had  been  to  drink,  and 
commenced  crossing  the  plain  slowly,  eating 
as  they  went.  The  wind  was  favorable;  the 
coolness  of  the  morning  invited  to  exercise ; 
the  ground  was  apparently  good,  and  the  dis- 
tance across  the  prairie  (two  or  three  miles) 
gave  us  a  fine  opportunity  to  charge  them  be- 
fore they  could  get  among  the  river  hills.  It 
was  too  fine  a  prospect  for  a  chase  to  be  lost ; 
and  halting  for  a  few  moments,  the  hunters 
were  brought  up  and  saddled,  and  Kit  Carson, 
Maxwell,  and  I,  started  together.  They  were 
now  somewhat  less  than  half  a  mile  distant, 
and  we  rode  easily  along  until  within  about 
tln'ee  hundred  yards,  when  a  sudden  agitation, 
a  wavering  in  the  band,  and  a  galloping  to 
and  fro  of  some  which  were  scattered  along 
the  skirts,  gave  us  the  intimation  that  wo 
were  discovered.  We  started  together  at  a 
hand  gallop,  riding  steadily  abreast  of  each 


164          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON 

other,  and  here  the  interest  of  the  chase  bo- 
came  so  engrossingly  intense,  that  we  were  sen- 
sible to  nothing  else.  We  were  now  closing 
upon  them  rapidly,  and  the  front  of  the  mass 
was  already  in  rapid  motion  for  the  hills,  and 
in  a  few  seconds  the  movement  had  communi- 
cated itself  to  the  whole  herd. 

"  A  crowd  of  bulls,  as  usual,  brought  up  the 
rear,  and  every  now  and  then  some  of  them 
faced  about,  and  then  dashed  on  after  the  band 
a  short  distance,  and  turned  and  looked  again, 
as  if  more  than  half  inclined  to  stand  and 
fight.  In  a  few  moments,  however,  during 
which  we  had  been  quickening  our  pace,  the 
rout  was  universal,  and  we  were  going  over 
the  ground  like  a  hurricane.  When  at  about 
thirty  yards,  we  gave  the  usual  shout  (the 
hunter's  pas  de  charge),  and  broke  into  the 
herd.  We  entered  on  the  side,  the  mass  giv- 
ing way  in  every  direction  in  their  heedless 
course.  Many  of  the  bulls,  less  active  and 
less  fleet  than  the  cows,  paying  no  attention  to 
the  ground,  and  occupied  solely  with  the  hun- 
ter, were  precipitated  to  the  earth  with  great 
force,  rolling  over  and  over  with  the  vio- 
lence  of  the  shock,  and  hardly  distinguishable 
in  the  dust.  We  separated  on  entering,  each 
singling  out  his  game. 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

"  My  horse  was  a  trained  hunter,  famous  in 
I  he  west  under  the  name  of  Proveau,  and  ^ith 
his  eyes  flashing,  and  the  foiim  flying  from 
his  mouth,  sprang  on  after  the  cow  like  a 
tiger.  In  a  few  moments  he  brought  mo 
alongside  of  her,  and  rising  in  the  stirrups,  I 
fired  at  the  distance  of  a  yard,  the  ball  enter- 
ing at  the  termination  of  the  long  hair,  and 
passing  near  the  heart.  She  fell  headlong  at 
the  report  of  the  gun,  and,  checking  my  horse, 
I  looked  around  for  my  companions. 

"At  a  little  distance,  Kit  was  on  the  ground, 
engaged  in  tying  his  horse  to  the  horns  of  a 
cow  which  he  was  preparing  to  cut  up.  Among 
the  scattered  bands,  at  some  distance  below,  I 
caught  a  glimpse  of  Maxwell ;  and  while  I  was 
looking,  a  light  wreath  of  white  smoke  curled 
away  from  his  gun,  from  wrhich  I  was  too  far 
to  hear  the  report.  Nearer,  and  between  me 
and  the  hills,  towards  which  they  were  direct- 
ing their  course,  was  the  body  of  the  herd,  and 
giving  my  horse  the  rein,  we  dashed  after 
them.  A  thick  cloud  of  dust  hung  upon  their 
rear,  which  filled  my  mouth  and  eyes,  and 
nearly  smothered  me.  In  the  midst  of  this  I 
could  see  nothing,  and  the  buffolo  were  not 
distinguishable  until  within  thirty  feet. 

"  They  crowded  together  more  densely  still 


166  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

as  I  came  upon  them,  and  rushed  along  in  a 
such  a  compact  body,  that  I  could  not  obtain 
an  entrance — the  horse  almost  leaping  upon 
them.  In  a  few  moments  the  mass  divided  to 
the  right  and  left,  the  horns  clattering  with  a 
noise  heard  above  everything  else,  and  my 
horse  darted  into  the  opening. 

"  Five  or  six  bulls  charged  on  us  as  we 
dashed  along  the  line,  but  were  left  far  be- 
hind ;  and  singling  out  a  cow,  I  gave  her  my 
fire,  but  struck  too  high.  She  gave  a  tremen- 
dous leap,  and  scoured  on  swifter  than  before. 
I  reined  up  my  horse,  and  the  band  swept  on 
like  a  torrent,  and  left  the  place  quiet  and 
clear.  Our  chase  had  led  us  into  dangerous 
ground.  A  prairie-dog  village,  so  thickly  set- 
tled that  there  were  three  or  four  holes  in  every 
twenty  yards  square,  occupied  the  whole  bot- 
iom  for  nearly  two  miles  in  length.  Looking 
around,  I  saw  only  one  of  the  hunters,  nearly 
out  of  sight,  and  the  long  dark  line  of  our  car- 
avan crawling  along,  three  or  four  miles  dis- 
tant." 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE  encampment  of  the  party  on  the  4th 
of  July,  was  a  few  miles  from  where  the  road 
crosses  over  to  the  north  fork  of  the  Platte, 
where  a  grand  dinner  was  prepared,  toasts 
drank,  and  salutes  fired ;  and  it  was  here  Fre- 
mont decided  to  divide  his  party,  wishing,  him- 
self, to  explore  the  south  fork  of  the  Platte,  as 
far  as  St.  Vrain's  Fort ;  and  taking  with  him 
Maxwell  and  two  others  of  his  men,  and  the 
Cheyenne  Indians,  whose  village  was  upon 
this  river,  he  left  the  rest  of  the  party  to  pro- 
ceed under  the  direction  of  Clement  Lambert 
up  the  north  fork  to  Fort  Laramie,  where  they 
were  to  wait  his  arrival,  as  he  intended  to  cross 
the  country  between  the  two  forts. 

Buffalo  were  still  plenty  upon  Fremont's 
route,  and  the  Indians  with  him  made  an  un- 
successful attempt  to  lasso  the  leader  of  a 
drove  of  wild  horses,  which  they  passed.  They 

met  a  band  of  two  or  three  hundred  Arapahoe 

(167) 


168  LIFE   OF   CHKISTOPHER   CAKSCLV. 

Indians,  and  were  only  saved  from  an  attack 
by  Maxwell,  who  secured  a  timely  recognition 
from  the  old  chief  who  led  the  party,  which 
proved  to  be  from  a  village  among  whom  he 
iiad  resided  as  a  trader,  and  whose  camp  the 
chief  pointed  out  to  them  some  six  miles  dis- 
tant. They  had  come  out  to  surround  a  band 
of  buffalo  which  was  feeding  across  the  river, 
and  were  making  a  large  circuit  to  avoid  gi  ring 
them  the  wind,  when  they  discovered  JFre- 
mont's  party,  whom  they  had  mistaken  for 
Pawnees.  In  a  few  minutes  the  women  came 
galloping  up,  astride  of  their  horses,  and 
naked  from  their  knees  down,  and  the  hips  up. 
They  followed  the  men  to  assist  in  cutting  up 
and  carrying  oif  the  meat. 

The  wind  was  blowing  directly  across  the 
river,  and  the  chief  having  requested  Fremont 
to  remain  where  he  then  was,  to  avoid  raising 
the  herd,  he  readily  consented,  and  having  un- 
saddled their  horses,  they  sat  down  to  view  tho 
scene.  The  day  had  become  very  hot,  the  ther- 
mometer standing  at  108°.  The  Indians  com- 
menced crossing  the  river,  and  as  soon  as  they 
were  upon  the  other  side,  separated  into  two 
bodies. 

Fremont  thus  describes  this  exciting  hunt, 
or  massacre,  as  the  reader  may  choose  to  de 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOtf.  169 

signate  it, — and  his  subsequent  visit  to  the  Ar- 
apahoe  village : 

"  One  party  proceeded  directly  across  the 
prairie,  towards  the  hills,  in  an  extended  line, 
while  the  other  went  up  the  river;  and  in- 
stantly, as  they  had  given  the  wind  to  the  herd, 
the  chase  commenced.  The  buffalo  started  for 
the  hills,  but  were  intercepted  and  driven  back 
toward  the  river,  broken  and  running  in  every 
direction.  The  clouds  of  dust  soon  covered 
the  whole  scene,  preventing  us  from  having 
any  but  an  occasional  view.  It  had  a  very 
singular  appearance  to  us  at  a  distance,  espe- 
cially when  looking  with  the  glass. 

"  We  were  too  far  to  hear  the  report  of  the 
guns,  or  any  sound,  and  at  every  instant, 
through  the  clouds  of  dust,  which  the  sun 
made  luminous,  we  could  see  for  a  moment 
two  or  three  buffalo  dashing  along,  and  close 
behind  them  an  Indian  with  his  long  spear, 
or  other  weapon,  and  instantly  again  they 
disappeared.  The  apparent  silence,  and  the 
dimly  seen  figures  flitting  by  with  such  ra< 
pidity,  gave  it  a  kind  of  dreamy  effect,  and 
seemed  more  like  a  picture  than  a  scene  of 
real  life. 

"  It  had  been  a  large  herd  when  the  cerne 
commenced,  probably  three  or  four  hundred  in 


170          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

number;  but  though  I  watched  them  closely, 
I  did  not  see  one  emerge  from  the  fatal  cloud 
whore  the  work  of  destruction  was  going  on. 
After  remaining  here  about  an  hour,  we  re- 
sumed our  journey  in  the  direction  of  the  vil- 
lage. 

"  Gradually,  as  we  rode  on,  Indian  after  In- 
dian came  dropping  along,  laden  with  meat ; 
and  by  the  time  we  had  reached  the  lodges, 
the  backward  road  was  covered  with  the  re- 
turning horsemen.  It  was  a  pleasant  contrast 
with  the  desert  road  we  had  been  traveling. 
Several  had  joined  company  with  us,  and  one 
of  the  chiefs  invited  us  to  his  lodge. 

"  The  village  consisted  of  about  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty-five  lodges,  of  which  twenty 
were  Cheyennes ;  the  latter  pitched  a  little 
apart  from  the  Arapahoes.  They  were  dis- 
posed in  a  scattering  manner  on  both  sides  of 
a  broad,  irregular  street,  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  feet  wide,  and  running  along  the  river. 
As  we  rode  along,  I  remarked  near  some  of 
the  lodges  a  kind  of  tripod  frame,  formed  of 
three  slender  poles  of  birch,  scraped  very 
clean,  to  which  were  affixed  the  shield  and 
spear,  with  some  other  weapons  of  a  chief.  All 
were  scrupulously  clean,  the  spear  head  was 
burnished  bright,  and  the  shield  white  and 


LIFE   OF   CHRIS  furllER   CARSON.          171 

stainless.  It  reminded  me  of  the  clays  of 
feudal  chivalry;  and  when,  as  I  rode  by,  I 
yielded  to  tho  passing  impulse,  and  touched 
one  of  the  spotless  shields  with  the  muzzle  of 
my  gun,  I  almost  expected  a  grim  warrior  to 
start  from  the  lodge  and  resent  my  challenge. 

"  The  master  of  the  lodge  spread  out  a  robe 
for  me  to  sit  upon,  and  the  squaws  set  before 
us  a  large  wooden  dish  of  buffalo  meat.  He 
had  lit  his  pipe  in  the  meanwhile,  and  when  it 
had  been  passed  around,  we  commenced  our 
dinner  while  he  continued  to  smoke.  Gradu- 
ally, five  or  six  other  chiefs  came  in,  and  took 
their  seats  in  silence.  When  we  had  finished, 
our  host  asked  a  number  of  questions  relative 
to  the  object  of  our  journey,  of  which  I  mado 
no  concealment ;  telling  him  simply  that  I  had 
made  a  visit  to  see  the  country,  preparatory  to 
the  establishment  of  military  posts  on  the  way 
to  the  mountains. 

"  Although  this  was  information  of  the 
highest  interest  to  them,  and  by  no  means 
calculated  to  please  them,  it  excited  no  expres- 
sion of  surprise,  and  in  no  way  altered  the 
grave  courtesy  of  their  demeanor.  The  others 
listened  and  smoked.  I  remarked,  that  in 
taking  the  pipe  for  the  first  time,  each  had 
turned  the  stem  upward,  with  a  rapid  glance, 


172          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER    CARSOX 

as  in  offering  to  the  Great  Spirit,  before  he  put 
it  in  his  mouth." 

Riding  near  the  river,  Fremont  and  Max- 
well had  an  interview  with  Jim  Beckwith,  who 
had  been  chief  of  the  Crow  Indians,  but  had 
left  them  some  time  before,  and  was  now  re- 
siding in  this  river  bottom,  with  his  wife,  a 
Spanish  woman  from  Taos.  They  also  passed 
a  camp  of  four  or  five  JSTew  Engianders,  with 
Indian  wives — a  party  of  independent  trap- 
pers, and  reached  St.  Vrain's  Fort  on  the  eve- 
ning of  July  10th7  where  they  were  hospitably 
entertained  by  Mr.  St.  Train,  and  received 
from  him  such  needed  assistance  as  he  was 
able  to  render.  Maxwell  was  at  home  here, 
as  he  had  spent  the  last  two  or  three  years  be- 
tween the  fort  and  Taos. 

On  the  evening  of  the  fifteenth,  they  arrived 
at  Fort  Laramie,  a  post  of  the  American  Fur 
Company,  near  the  junction  of  the  Laramie 
Creek  with  the  Platte  River,  which  had  quite 
a  military  appearance,  with  its  lofty  Avails 
whitewashed  and  picketed,  and  large  bastions 
at  the  angles.  A  cluster  of  lodges  belonging 
to  the  Sioux  Indians  was  pitched  under  the 
Avails.  He  was  received  with  great  hospitality 
by  the  gentleman  in  charge  of  the  fort,  Mr. 
Boudeau,  having  letters  of  introduction  to  him 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.          173 

from  the  company  at  St.  Louis,  and  it  is  hardly 
necessary  to  say  that  he  was  hospitably  re- 
ceived and  most  kindly  treated.  He  found 
Carson  with  the  party  under  his  command 
camped  on  the  bank  near  the  fort,  by  whom 
they  were  most  warmly  welcomed,  and  in  the 
enjoyment  of  a  bountiful  supper,  which  coffee 
and  bread  converted  almost  into  a  luxury, 
they  forgot  the  toils  and  sufferings  of  the  past 
ten  days. 

The  news  brought  by  Mr.  Preuss,  who  it 
will  be  remembered  was  with  Carson's  party, 
was  as  exciting  as  it  wras  unpleasant.  He  had 
learned  that  the  Sioux  who  had  been  badly 
disposed,  had  now  broken  out  into  open  hos- 
tility, and  his  informant,  a  well  known  trap- 
per, named  Bridger,  had  been  attacked  by  them, 
and  had  only  defeated  them  after  serious  losses 
on  both  sides.  United  with  the  Cheyennes 
and  Gros  Ventre  Indians,  they  were  scouring 
the  country  in  war  parties,  declaring  war  upon 
every  living  thing  which  should  pass  the  Red 
Suites;  their  special  hostility  being,  however,  di- 
rected against  the  white  men.  In  fact  the  coun- 
try was  swarming  with  hostile  Indians,  and  it 
was  but  too  evident  that  any  party  who  should 
attempt  to  enter  upon  the  forbidden  grounds, 
must  do  so  at  the  certain  hazard  of  their  lives, 


174  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

Of  course  such,  intelligence  created  greri  com 
motion  throughout  the  camp,  and  it  *ormoil 
the  sole  subject  of  conversation  and  discussion 
during  the  evenings  around  the  camp  fires. 

Speaking  of  this  report,  and  the  effect  pro 
duced  upon  his  men,  Fremont  uses  the  follow- 
iag  language: 

"  Carson,  one  of  the  best  and  most  experi- 
enced mountaineers,  fully  supported  the  opin- 
ion given  by  Bridger  of  the  dangerous  state 
of  the  country,  and  openly  expressed  his  con- 
viction that  we  could  not  escape  without  some 
sharp  encounters  with  the  Indians.  In  addi- 
tion to  this,  he  made  his  will ;  and  among  the 
circumstances  which  were  constantly  occurring 
to  increase  their  alarm,  this  was  the  most 
unfortunate ;  and  I  found  that  a  number  of 
my  party  had  become  so  much  intimidated 
that  they  had  requested  to  be  discharged  at 
this  place." 

Carson's  apprehensions  were  fully  justified 
by  the  circumstances  surrounding  them ;  and 
while  we  might  have  omitted  the  above  quota 
tion,  as  tending  to  exhibit  him  in  a  false  l;ghl , 
doubtless  unintentionally,  we  choose  rather  to 
say  a  few  words  which  will  rob  the  insinuation 
of  its  sting. 

While  there  was  reason  to  expect  an  en 


LIFE   OP    CI1KISTOPHER   CAKSOX.          175 

Counter  with  Indians,  in  whom  it  was  reported 
the  spirit  of  revenge  was  cherished  towards 
the  whites,  more  than  ever  it  had  boen  before, 
and  whom  numbers  and  acquisition  of  fire- 
arms rendered  really  formidable  foes,  he  felt 
that  the  party  with  whom  he  was  now  associ- 
ated, were  not  the  men  upon  whom  he  could 
rely  with  certainty  in  an  engagement  against 
such  terrible  odds.  In  the  days  of  his  earlier 
experiences,  the  old  trappers  with  him  were 
men  who  had  as  little  fear  as  himself,  and 
were  also  experienced  in  such  little  affairs,  for 
such  they  considered  them.  Now,  except 
Maxwell,  an  old  associate,  and  two  or  three 
others,  the  men  of  the  party  were  half  para- 
lyzed with  fear  at  the  prospect  which  this  re- 
port presented  to  them  ;  and  it  was  the  know- 
ledge of  their  fear,  which  they  made  no  attempt 
to  conceal,  which  excited  in  his  mind  appre- 
hensions for  the  worst,  for  he  did  not  choose 
to  guide  others  into  danger  recklessly,  even  if 
he  had  no  care  for  himself. 

Headlong  rashness,  which  some  might  mis- 
take for  courage,  was  not  a  trait  of  his  charac- 
ter ;  but  the  voice  of  a  whole  country  accords 
to  Aim  cool  bravery,  presence  of  mind,  and 
courage  to  meet  whatever  danger  forethoughl 
could  not  guard  against. 


176  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER    CARSON. 

With  a  party  of  men  like  those  he  had  5^d 
several  times  against  the  Blackfeet,  nothing 
could  have  persuaded  him  to  turn  back  from 
any  enterprise  which  he  had  undertaken,  from 
a  fear  of  hostile  Indians.  Of  course  he  could 
not  state  his  reason  for  his  apprehensions  even 
to  his  employer,  because  it  would  reflect  upon 
his  ability  to  arrange  for  such  an  enterprise, 
or  his  courage  to  conduct  it  to  a  successful  ter- 
mination, neither  of  which  he  could  doubt ;  and 
it  is  therefore  with  something  of  regret  we 
read  in  an  official  report,  emanating  from  one 
who  owed  more  to  Kit  Carson,  of  the  fame  and 
reputation  so  justly  earned,  than  to  any  other 
living  man,  the  assertion  that  Carson,  stimu- 
lated by  fear,  made  his  will.  The  best  contra- 
diction which  can  be  afforded,  is  found  in  the 
fact,  that  notwithstanding  his  apprehensions,  l|e 
did  accompany  the  party,  discharging  with  his 
usual  zeal,  ability,  and  fidelity,  the  duties  which 
devolved  upon  him ;  and  we  have  yet  to  learn 
that  Kit  Carson  ever  shrunk  from  any  danger. 

His  reputation  has,  however,  outlived  this 
covert  insinuation,  and  we  presume  that  no 
man  on  this  continent  would  hesitate  to  award 
to  Kit  Carson,  the  highest  attributes  of  moral 
and  physical  courage. 

"  During  our  stay  here,"  says  Fremont  in 


OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX.  177 

continuation,  "  the  men  had  been  engaged  in 
making  numerous  repairs,  arranging  pack- 
saddles,  and  otherwise  preparing  for  the 
chances  of  a  rough  road,  and  mountain  travel, 
all  of  which  Carson  had  superintended,  urging 
upon  the  men  that  tjieir  comfort  and  their 
safety  required  it.  All  things  of  this  nature 
being  ready,  I  gathered  them  around  me  in  the 
evening,  and  told  them  that  '  I  had  determined 
to  proceed  the  next  day.  They  were  all  well 
armed.  I  had  engaged  the  services  of  Mr. 
Bissonette  as  interpreter,  and  had  taken,  in 
the  circumstances,  every  possible  means  to  in- 
sure our  safety.  In  the  rumors  we  had  heard,  I 
believed  there  was  much  exageration,  and  then 
they  were  men  accustomed  to  this  kind  of  life, 
and  to  the  country ;  and  that  these  were  tho 
clangers  of  every  day  occurrence,  and  to  be  ex- 
pected in  the  ordinary  course  of  their  service. 
They  had  heard  of  the  unsettled  condition  of 
the  country  before  leaving  St.  Louis,  and  there- 
fore could  not  make  it  a  reason  for  breaking 
their  engagements.  Still,  I  was  unwilling 
to  take  with  me,  on  a  service  of  some  certain 
danger,  men  on  whom  I  could  not  rely ;  and 
as  I  had  understood  that  there  were  among 
them  some  who  were  disposed  to  cowardice, 
and  anxious  to  return,  they  had  but  to  come 
12 


178          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX. 

forward  at  once,  and  state  their  desire,  and  they 
would  be  discharged  with  the  amount  due  to 
them  for  the  time  they  had  served."  To  thuir 
honor,  be  it  said,  there  was  but  one  among  them 
who  had  the  face  to  come  forward  and  a^ail 
himself  of  the  permission.  I  asked  him  some 
few  questions,  in  order  to  expose  him  to  the  ridi- 
cule of  the  men,  and  let  him  go.  The  day  after 
our  departure,  he  engaged  himself  to  one  of 
the  forts,  and  set  off  with  a  party  to  the  Upper 
Missouri. 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

As  our  explorers  advanced,  one  of  the  most 
prominent  features  of  the  country  was  the 
abundance  of  artemi^ia  growing  everywhere, 
on  the  hills  and  in  the  river  bottoms,  in  twisted 
wiry  clumps,  filling  the  air  with  the  odor  of 
mingled  camphor  and  spirits  of  turpentine, 
and  impeding  the  progress  of  the  wagons  out 
of  the  beaten  track. 

They  met  a  straggling  party  of  the  Indians 
which  had  followed  the  trail  of  the  emigrants, 
and  learned  from  them  that  multitudes  of 
grasshoppers  had  consumed  the  grass  upon  the 
road,  so  that  they  had  found  no  game,  and 
were  obliged  to  kill  even  their  horses,  to  ward 
off  starvation.  Of  course  danger  from  these 
Indians  was  no  longer  to  be  apprehended, 
though  the  prospect  was  a  gloomy  one,  but 
new  courage  seemed  to  inspire  the  party  when 
the  necessity  of  endurance  seemed  at  hand. 

The  party   now   followed   Carson's   advice, 

(179) 


180          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

given  at  Fort  Laramie,  to  disencumber  them- 
selves of  all  unnecessary  articles,  and  accord- 
ingly they  left  their  wagons,  concealing  them 
among  low  shrubbery,  after  they  had  taken 
them  to  pieces,  and  made  a  cache  of  such  other 
effects  as  they  could  leave,  among  the  sand  heaps 
of  the  river  bank,  and  then  set  to  work  to  mend 
and  arrange  the  pack  saddles,  and  packs,  the 
whole  of  which  was  superintended  by  Carson, 
and  to  him  was  now  assigned  the  office  of 
guide,  as  they  had  reached  a  section  of  the 
country,  with  a  great  part  of  which  long  resi- 
dence had  made  him  familiar.  Game  was 
found  in  great  abundance  after  they  reached 
the  river  bottom,  off  the  traveled  road,  both 
upon  the  Platte  and  after  they  crossed  over 
the  divide  to  the  Sweet  Water. 

Speaking  of  the  gorge  where  the  Platte 
River  issues  from  the  Black  Hills,  changing  its 
character  abruptly  from  a  mountain  stream  to 
a  river  of  the  plain,  Fremont  says,  "  I  visited 
this  place  with  my  favorite  man,  Basil  Lajeu- 
nesse  ;"  and  this  extraordinary  expression,  left 
unexplained,  would  lead  the  casual  reader  to 
believe  or  think  that  Carson  had  lost  the  con- 
fidence of  the  official  leader  of  the  party. 

It  has  seemed  to  us,  in  reading  Fremont's 
narrative  of  this  first  expedition  to  the 


LIFE  OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.          181 

&vtfantains,  that  in  view  of  some  failures  to 
achieve  what  was  sought,  and  to  avoid  what 
was  suffered,  Carson's  advice,,  given  with  a 
larger  experience,  and  with  less  of  impetuosity 
than  that  of  the  young  Huguenot's,  would,  if 
followed,  have  secured  different  results,  both 
for  the  comfort  of  the  party,  and  the  benefit 
of  science;  and  while  those  of  like  tempera- 
ment were  chosen  for  companions  by  Lieuten- 
ant Fremont,  it  detracts  nothing  from  his  rep- 
utation for  scientific  analysis  and  skill,  or  for 
high  courage,  but  only  gives  to  Carson  the  de- 
.  served  meed  of  praise  to  say,  his  was  the  hand 
that  steadied  the  helm,  and  kept  the  vessel  on 
her  way,  at  times  when,  without  his  judgment, 
sagacity,  and  experience,  it  must  have  been  se- 
riously damaged,  if  not  destroyed ;  and  with 
this  balance  wheel,  a  part  of  his  machinery, 
the  variety  of  difficulties  that  might  have  de- 
iVvited  the  scientific  purpose  of  the  expedition, 
or  have  made  it  the  last  Fremont  would  de- 
sire, or  the  Government  care  to  have  him  un- 
dertake, were  avoided ;  and  no  one  inquired  to 
know  the  cause. 

It  often  happens  that  the  quiet,  simpler 
offices  of  life  become  imperative,  and  first 
duties,  to  one  who  feels  that  all  the  qualifica- 
tions fitting  for  more  honorable  place,  are  poa 


182          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

sessed  by  him,  in  much  larger  measure  than 
by  the  occupant  of  the  higher  official  position, 
— as  men  are  wont  to  esteem  it — and,  as  there 
is  no  explanation  given,  nor,  by  declaration, 
even  the  fact  stated  that  this  was  true  now  in 
respect  to  Christopher  Carson,  we  shall  give 
no  reason,  further  than  to  say,  that  the  care  of 
finding  suitable  places  for  .camping,  of  seeing 
that  the  party  were  all  in,  and  the  animals 
properly  cared  for,  their  saddles  in  order,  and 
the  fastenings  secure ;  of  finding  game,  and 
watching  to  see  that  the  food  is  properly  ex- 
pended, so  that  each  supply  shall  last  till  re 
can  be  replenished ;  of  seeing  that  the  general 
property  of  the  party  is  properly  guarded,  and 
a  variety  of  other  matters,  which  pertain  to 
the  success  of  an  enterprise  like  this,  and 
without  which  it  must  be  a  failure,  could  not  all 
be  borne  by  Fremont;  and  while  he  had 
assigned  to  each  his  position  in  the  labor  of 
the  camp,  the  place  of  general  care-taker, 
which  comes  not  by  apointment,  fell  naturally 
to  the  lot  of  Carson ;  and  such  supervision  wai 
cheerfully  performed,  though  it  brought  no 
other  reward  than  the  satisfaction  of  knowing 
that  the  essential  elements  of  success  were  not 
neglected. 
Shall  we  not  then  deem  him  worthy  of  all 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON".  183 

praise  for  being  content  to  occupy  such  a  posi- 
tion ?  Employed  to  guide  the  party,  he  had 
hoped  to  share  the  confidence  of  its  leader,  but 
the  latter  had  already  other  friends,  jealous  of 
his  attentions  ;  he  had  another  hunter,  jealous 
of  his  own  reputation  in  his  profession,  and 
of  his  knowledge  of  the  country ;  then  there 
were  two  youths  in  the  party,  one  of  whom 
wished  to  be  amused,  and  both  to  be  instructed  ; 
and  in  becoming  the  general  providence  of  the 
party,  which  is  scarcely  thought  of,  because  it 
seems  to  come  of  itself,  we  find  the  reason  why 
Fremont's  first  narrative  shows  Carson  so 
little  like  the  brave,  bold  hunter  we  have 
known  him  hitherto.  We  allude  to  two  lads, 
one  a  son  of  the  Hon.  T.  H.  Benton,  who  ac- 
companied him  out  during  a  portion  of  his 
first  expedition,  and  for  whom  it  is  evident  he 
made  many  sacrifices. 

Buffalo  were  numerous,  and  they  saw  many 
tracks  of  the  grizzly  bear  among  the  cherry 
trees  and  currant  bushes  that  lined  the  river 
banks,  while  antelope  bounded  fitfully  before 
them  over  the  plains. 

But  the  reader  is  already  familiar  with  this 
condition  of  things  in  the  country,  because  the 
hero  of  cur  story  has  been  here  before,  and  to 
apply  the  term  explorer  here  to  Fremont,  and 


384         LIFE   OF  CHEISTOPHEB   CARSOff. 

to  call  this  an  exploring  expedition,  seems 
farcical,  only  as  we  remember  that  there  had 
not  been  yet  any  written  scientific  description 
of  this  region,  so  long  familiar  to  the  trappers, 
and  to  none  more  than  Carson. 

They  had  now  approached  the  road  at  what 
is  called  the  South  Pass.  The  ascent  had  been 
so  gradual,  that,  with  all  the  intimate  know- 
ledge possessed  by  Carson,  who  had  made  this 
country  his  home  for  seventeen  years,  they 
were  obliged  to  watch  very  closely  to  find  the 
place  at  which  they  reached  the  culminating 
point.  This  was  between  two  low  hills,  rising 
on  either  hand  fifty  or  sixty  feet. 

Approaching  it  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Sweet  Water,  a  sandy  plain,  one  hundred  and 
twenty  miles  long,  conducts,  by  a  gradual  and 
regular  ascent,  to  the  summit,  about  seven 
thousand  feet  above  the  sea ;  and  the  traveler, 
without  being  reminded  of  any  change  by  toil- 
some ascents,  suddenly  finds  himself  on  the 
waters  which  flow  to  the  Pacific  ocean.  By 
the  route  they  had  traveled,  the  distance  from 
Fort  Laramie  was  three  hundred  and  twenty 
miles,  or  nine  hundred  and  fifty  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Kansas. 

They  continued  on  till  they  came  to  a  tribu- 
tary of  the  Green  River,  and  then  followed 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  185 

tne  stream  up  to  a  lake  at  its  source  in  the 
mountains,  and  had  here  a  view  of  extraordi- 
nary magnificence  and  grandeur,  beyond  what 
is  seen  in  any  part  of  the  Alps,  and  here,  be- 
side the  placid  lake,  they  left  the  mules,  in- 
tending to  ascend  the  mountains  on  foot,  and 
measure  the  altitude  of  the  highest  point. 

Fremont  had  wished  to  make  a  circuit  of  a 
few  miles  in  the  mountains,  and  visit  the 
sources  of  the  four  great  streams,  the  Colorado, 
the  Columbiyi,  the  Missouri,  and  the  Platte, 
but  game  was  scarce,  and  his  men  were  not  ac- 
customed to  their  entirely  meat  fare,  and  were 
discontented.  • 

With  fifteen  picked  men,  mounted  on  the 
best  mules,  was  commenced  the  ascent  of  the 
mountains,  and  amid  views  of  most  romantic 
beauty,  overlooking  deep  valleys  with  lakes 
nestled  in  them,  surrounded  by  precipitous 
ridges,  hundreds  of  feet  high,  they  wound 
their  way  up  to  the  summits  of  the  ridges,  to 
descend  again,  and  plod  along  the  valley  of  a 
little  stream  on  the  other  side. 

For  two  days  they  continued  upon  their 
mules,  through  this  magnificent  region,  when 
the  peak  appeared  so  near,  it  was  decided  to 
leave  the  mules  beside  a  little  lake,  and  pro- 
ceed 01:  foot;  and  as  the  day  was  warm,  sumo 


186  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX. 

of  the  party  left  their  coats.  But  at  night 
they  had  reached  the  limit  of  the  piney  region, 
when  they  were  ten  thousand  feet  above  the 
waters  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  still  the 
peak  rose  far  above  them,  so  that  they  camped 
without  suffering,  in  a  liMle  green  ravine,  bor- 
dered with  plants  in  oloom,  and  the  next 
morning  continued  the  f  .scent.  Carson  had  led 
this  day,  and  succeeded  in  reaching  the  sum- 
mit of  a  snowy  peak,  supposed  to  be  the  highest, 
but  saw  from  it  the  one  they  had  been  seeking, 
towering  eight  >  andrecl  or  a  thousand  feet 
above  him.  7  .ley  now  descended  off  the 
snow,  and  sen '  back  for  mules,  -and  food,  and 
blankets,  and  oy  a  blazing  fire  all  slept  soundly 
until  mornir  g. 

Carson  h  .d  understood  that  they  had  now 
clone  with  the  mountains,  and  by  directions 
had  gone  at  day  break  to  the  camp,  taking 
with  him  all  but  four  or  five  men,  wrho  were 
to  remain  with  Fremont,  and  take  back  the 
mules  and  instruments.  But  after  their  de- 
parture, the  programme  was  changed,  and  now 
understanding  the  topography  of  the  country 
better,  the  party  left,  continued  with  the  mules 
as  far  as  possible,  and  then  on  foot,  over 
chasms,  leaping  from  point  to  point  of  crags, 
until  they  came,  with  extreme  difficulty,  in  the 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  187 

intense  cold  and  rarified  air,  to  the  height  of 
the  crest,  and  Fremont  stood  alone  upon  the 
pinnacle,  and  able  to  tell  the  story  of  this  vic- 
tory of  Science  to  the  world.  He  had  been 
sick  the  day  before,  and  Carson  could  not  urge 
the  prosecution  of  the  enterprise,  to  reach  the 
highest  point,  when  the  leader  of  the  expedi- 
tion was  too  ill  to  climb  the  summit,  and  there- 
fore had  not  objected  to  the  arrangement  of 
returning  to  the  camp. 

But  we  have  nothing  more  to  say.  The 
reader  of  the  story,  as  Fremont  tells  it.  wishes 
there  were  evidences  of  higher  magnanimity, 
which  are  wanting.  Carson  finds  no  fault, 
seems  to  notice  none.  He  performed  faithfully 
the  duty  assigned  to  him,  utters  no  complaint, 
but  is  content  in  carrying  out  a  subordinate's 
first  obligation,  that  of  obeying  orders. 


CHAPTER   XX. 

FREMONT  succeeded,  but  not  without  much 
danger  and  suffering,  in  reaching  the  highest 
peak  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  waved  over 
it  his  country's  flag,  in  triumph.  The  return 
trip  to  Fort  Laramie  was  not  marked  by  any 
incident  of  special  note,  and  Carson's  services 
being  no  longer  required,  he  left  his  com- 
mander here,  and  set  out  for  New  Mexico.  In 
1843,  he  married  a  Spanish  lady,  and  his  time 
was  occasionally  employed  by  Messrs.  Bent 
and  St.  Vrain,  his  old  and  tried  friends. 

While  thus  engaged  at  Bent's  Fort,  he 
learned  that  his  old  commander  and  friend 
had  passed  two  days  before,  on  another  ex- 
ploring expedition,  and  being  naturally  anx- 
ious to  see  again  one  to  whom  he  was  so 
strongly  attached,  he  started  on  his  trail,  and 
after  following  it  for  seventy  miles,  came  up 
with  him.  The  meeting  was  mutually  pleas- 
ing, but  resulted  quite  contrary  to  Carson's 
(188) 


L[FE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX.          189 

anticipations,  for,  instead  of  merely  meeting 
and  parting,  Fremont,  anxious  to  regain  the  ser- 
vices of  one  whose  experience, .judgment,  and 
courage,  had  been  so  well  tried,  persuaded 
him  to  join  this  second  expedition,  and  again 
we  find  him  launched  as  guide  and  hunter. 

Carson  was  at  once  despatched  to  the  fort  with 
directions  to  procure  a  supply  of  mules  which  the 
party  much  needed,  and  to  meet  him  with  the 
animals  at  St.  Train's  Fort.  This  was  accom- 
plished to  Fremont's  entire  satisfaction.  The 
object  of  this  second  exploration  was  to  connect 
the  survey  of  the  previous  year  with  those  of 
Commander  Wilkes  on  the  Pacific  coast,  but 
Fremont's  first  destination  was  the  Great  Salt 
Lake,  which  has  since  become  so  famous  in  the 
annals  of  our  country. 

Fremont's  description  of  this  journey,  and 
of  his  passage  across  the  lake  in  a  frail  India 
rubber  boat,  which  threatened  at  every  mo- 
ment destruction  to  the  entire  party,  is  so  truo 
to  life,  and  so  highly  interesting,  we  quote  it 
entire.  The  party  reached,  on  the  21st  of  Au- 
gust, the  Bear  River,  which  was  the  principal 
tributary  of  the  lake,  and  from  this  point  we 
quote  Fremont's  words : 

"We  were  now  entering  a  region,  which  for 
us,  possessed  a  strange  and  extraordinary  in- 


190          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

terest.  We  were  upon  the  waters  of  the  fa 
mous  lake  which  forms  a  salient  point  amon# 
the  remarkable  geographical  features  of  the 
country,  and  around  which  the  vague  and  su- 
perstitious accounts  of  the  trappers  had  thrown 
a  delightful  obscurity,  which  we  anticipated 
pleasure  in  dispelling,  but  which,  in  the  mean- 
time, left  a  crowded  field  for  the  exercise  of  our 
imagination. 

"  In  our  occasional  conversations  with  the  few 
old  hunters  who  had  visited  the  region,  it  had 
been  a  subject  of  frequent  speculation  ;  and  the 
wonders  which  they  related  were  not  the  less 
agreeable  because  they  were  highly  exag- 
gerated and  impossible. 

"  Hitherto  this  lake  had  been  seen  only  by 
trappers,  who  were  wandering  through  the 
country  in  search  of  new  beaver  streams,  car- 
ing very  little  for  geography ;  its  islands  had 
never  been  visited ;  and  none  were  to  be  found 
who  had  entirely  made  the  circuit  of  its  shores, 
and  no  instrumental  observations,  or  geogra- 
phical survey  of  any  description,  had  ever  been 
made  ar»y where  in  the  neighboring  region.  It 
was  generally  supposed  that  it  had  no  visible 
outlet ;  but,  among  the  trappers,  including 
those  in  my  own  camp,  were  many  who  be- 
lieved that  somewhere  on  its  surface  was  a  tor- 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  191 

rible  whirlpool,  through  which  its  waters  found 
their  way  to  the  ocean  by  some  subterranean 
communication.  All  these  things  had  been  made 
a  frequent  subject  of  discussion  in  our  desultory 
conversations  around  the  fires  at  night ;  and 
my  own  mind  had  become  tolerably  well  filled 
with  their  indefinite  pictures,  and  insensibly 
colored  with  their  romantic  descriptions,  which, 
in  the  pleasure  of  excitement,  I  was  well  dis- 
posed to  believe,  and  half  expected  to  real- 
ize. 

"  In  about  six  miles'  travel  from  our  en- 
campment, we  reached  one  of  the  points  in  our 
journey  to  which  we  had  always  looked  for- 
ward with  great  interest — the  famous  Beer 
Springs,  which,  on  account  of  the  effervescing 
gas  and  acid  taste,  had  received  their  name 
from  the  voyageurs  and  trappers  of  the  coun- 
try, who,  in  the  midst  of  their  rude  and  hard 
lives,  are  fond  of  finding  some  fancied  resem- 
blance to  the  luxuries  they  rarely  have  the 
good  fortune  to  enjoy. 

"Although  somewhat  disappointed  in  the 
expectations  which  various  descriptions  had  led 
me  to  form  of  unusual  beauty  of  situation  ami 
scenery,  I  found  it  altogether  a  place  of  very 
great  interest ;  and  a  traveler  for  the  first  time 
in  a  volcanic  region  remains  in  a  constant  ex- 


192          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER    CARSGN. 

citement,  and  at  every  step  is  arrested  by 
something  remarkable  and  new.  There  is  a 
confusion  of  interesting  objects  gathered  to- 
gether in  a  small  space.  Around  the  place  of 
encampment  the  Beer  Springs  were  numerous  ; 
but,  as  far  as  we  could  ascertain,  were  entirely 
confined  to  that  locality  in  the  bottom.  In  the 
bed  of  the  river,  in  front,  for  a  space  of  several 
hundred  yards,  they  were  very  abundant ;  the 
effervescing  gas  rising  up  and  agitating  tho 
water  in  countless  bubbling  columns.  In  the 
vicinity  round  about  were  numerous  springs 
of  an  entirely  different  and  equally  marked 
mineral  character.  In  a  rather  picturesque 
spot,  about  1,300  yards  below  our  encampment 
and  immediately  on  the  river  bank,  is  the 
most  remarkable  spring  of  the  place.  In  an 
opening  on  the  rock,  a  white  column  of  scat- 
tered water  is  thrown  up,  in  form  like  a  jet- 
d'eau,  to  a  variable  height  of  about  three  feet, 
and,  though  it  is  maintained  in  a  constant 
supply,  its  greatest  height  is  attained  only  at 
regular  intervals,  according  to  the  action  of  tho 
force  below.  It  is  accompanied  by  a  subterra- 
nean noise,  which,  together  with  the  motion 
of  the  water,  makes  very  much  the  impression 
of  a  steamboat  in  motion  ;  and,  without  know- 
ing that  it  had  been  already  previously  so 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  193 

called,  we  gave  to  it  the  name  of  the  Steam- 
boat Spring.     The  rock  through  which  it  J8 
forced  is  slightly  raised  in  a  convex  mannei  , 
and    gathered   at  the   opening  into   an   urn 
mouthed  form,  and  is   evidently    formed  bj 
continued  deposition  from  the  water,  and  col 
ored  bright  red  by  oxide  of  iron. 

"  It  is  a  hot  spring,  and  the  water  has  a  pun- 
gent, disagreeable  metallic  taste,  leaving  a 
burning  effect  on  the  tongue.  Within  perhaps 
two  yards  of  the  jet-ffeau,  is  a  small  hole  of 
about  an  inch  in  diameter,  through  which,  at 
regular  intervals,  escapes  a  blast  of  hot  air 
with  a  light  wreath  of  smoke,  accompanied  by 
a  regular  noise. 

"  As  they  approached  the  lake,  they  passed 
over  a  country  of  bold  and  striking  scenery, 
and  through  several  '  gates,'  as  they  called  cer- 
tain narrow  valleys.  The  '  standing  rock'  is  a 
huge  column,  occupying  the  centre  of  one  of 
these  passes.  It  fell  from  a  height  of  perhaps 
3,000  feet,  and  happened  to  remain  in  its 
present  upright  position. 

"  At  last,  on  the  6th  of  September,  the  ob- 
ject for  which  their  eyes  had  long  been  strain- 
ing was  brought  to  view. 

"  Sept.  6. — This  time  we  reached  the  butte 

without  any  difficulty ;  and,  ascending  to  the 
13 


194  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSO.V. 

summit,  immediately  at  our  feet  behold  the 
object  of  our  anxious  search,  the  wateis  of  tho 
Inland  Sea,  stretching  in  still  and  solitary 
grandeur  far  beyond  the  limit  of  our  vision, 
1 1  was  one  of  the  great  points  of  the  explora- 
tion ;  and  as  we  looked  eagerly  over  the  lake 
in  the  first  emotions  of  excited  pleasure,  I  am 
doubtful  if  the  followers  of  Balboa  felt  more 
enthusiasm  when,  from  the  heights  of  the 
Andes,  they  saw  for  the  first  time  the  great 
Western  Ocean.  It  was  certainly  a  magnifi- 
cent object,  and  a  noble  terminus  to  this  part 
of  our  expedition ;  and  to  travelers  so  long 
shut  up  among  mountain  ranges,  a  sudden 
view  over  the  expanse  of  silent  waters  had  in 
it  something  sublime.  Several  large  islands 
raised  their  high  rocky  heads  out  of  the  waves ; 
but  whether  or  not  they  were  timbered  was 
still  left  to  our  imagination,  as  the  distance 
was  too  great  to  determine  if  the  dark  hues 
upon  them  were  woodland  or  naked  rock. 
During  the  day  the  clouds  had  been  gathering 
black  over  the  mountains  to  the  westward,  and 
while  we  were  looking,  a  storm  burst  down 
with  sudden  fury  upon  the  lake,  and  entirely 
hid  the  islands  from  our  view. 

u  On  the  edge  of  the  stream  a  favorable  spot 
\>         iected  in  a  grove,  and  felling  the  timber, 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  195 

we  made  a  strong  corral,  or  horse-pen,  for  the 
animals,  and  a  little  fort  for  the  people  who 
were  to  remain.  We  were  now  probably  in 
the  country  of  the  Utah  Indians,  though  none 
reside  upon  the  lake.  The  India-rubber  boat 
was  repaired  with  prepared  cloth  and  gum, 
and  filled  with  air,  in  readiness  for  the  next 
day. 

"  The  provisions  which  Carson  had  brought 
with  him  being  now  exhausted,  and  our  stock 
reduced  to  a  small  quantity  of  roots,  I  deter- 
mined to  retain  with  me  only  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  men  for  the  execution  of  our  design ; 
and  accordingly  seven  were  sent  back  to  Fort 
Hall,  under  the  guidance  of  Frangois  Lajeu- 
nesse,  wrho,  having  been  for  many  years  a 
trapper  in  the  country,  was  an  experienced 
mountaineer. 

"  We  formed  now  but  a  small  family.  With 
Mr.  Preuss  and  myself,  Carson,  Bernier,  and 
Basil  Lajeunesse  had  been  selected  for  the 
boat  expedition — the  first  ever  attempted  on 
this  interior  sea;  and  Badau,  with  Derosicr, 
nrid  Jacob  (the  colored  man),  were  to  be  left 
in  charge  of  the  camp.  We  were  favored  with 
most  delightful  weather.  To-night  there  was 
a  brilliant  sunset  of  golden  orange  and  green, 
which  left  the  western  sky  clear  and  beauti 


196  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPFKE   CARSON. 

fully  pure ;  but  clouds  in  the  ea-st  made  me  lose 
an  occupation.  The  summer  frcgo  were  singing 
around  us,  and  the  evening  was  very  pleasant, 
with  a  temperature  of  60° — a  night  of  a  more 
southern  autumn.  For  our  supper,  we  had 
yampah,  the  most  agreeably  flavored  of  the  roots, 
seasoned  by  a  small  fat  duck,  which  had  come 
in  the  way  of  Jacob's  rifle.  Around  our  fire* 
to-night  were  many  speculations  on  what  to- 
morrow would  bring  forth ;  and  in.  our  busy 
conjectures  we  fancied  that  we  should  find 
every  one  of  the  large  islands  a  tangled  wil- 
derness of  trees  and  shrubbery,  teeming  with 
game  of  every  description  that  the  neighbor 
ing  region  afforded,  and  which  the  foot  of  a 
white  man  or  Indian  had  never  violated.  Fre- 
quently, during  the  day,  clouds  had  rested  on 
the  summits  of  their  lofty  mountains,  and  we 
believed  that  we  should  find  clear  streams  and 
springs  of  fresh  water;  and  we  indulged  in 
anticipations  of  the  luxurious  repasts  with 
which  we  wore  to  indemnify  ourselves  for  past 
privations.  Neither,  in  our  discussions,  were 
the  whirlpool  and  other  mysterious  dangers  for- 
gotten, which  Indian  and  hunters'  stories  attri- 
buted to  this  unexplored  lake.  The  men  had  dis- 
covered that,  instead  of  being  strongly  sewed, 
(like  that  of  the  preceding  year,  which  had  so  tri- 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHEK   CARSOX.  197 

umphantly  rode  the  canons  of  the  Upper  Great 
Platte,)  our  present  boat  was  only  pasted  to- 
gether in  a  very  insecure  manner,  the  maker 
having  been  allowed  so  little  time  in  the  con- 
struction that  he  was  obliged  to  crowd  the 
labor  of  two  months  into  several  days.  The 
insecurity  of  the  boat  was  sensibly  felt  by  us ; 
and  mingled  with  the  enthusiasm  and  excite- 
ment that  we  all  felt  at  the  prospect  of  an 
undertaking  which  had  never  before  been  ac- 
complished, was  a  certain  impression  of  dan- 
ger, sufficient  to  give  a  serious  character  to  our 
conversation.  The  momentary  view  which 
had  been  had  of  the  lake  the  day  before,  its 
great  extent,  and  rugged  islands,  dimly  seen 
amidst  the  dark  waters  in  the  obscurity  of  the 
sudden  storm,  were  well  calculated  to  heighten 
the  idea  of  undefined  danger  with  which  the 
lake  was  generally  associated. 

"  Sept.  8. — A  calm,  clear  day,  with  a  sunrise 
temperature  of  41°.  In  view  of  our  present 
enterprise,  a  part  of  the  equipment  of  the  boat 
had  been  made  to  consist  of  three  air-tight 
bags,  about  three  feet  long,  and  capable  each 
of  containing  five  gallons.  These  had  been 
filled  with  water  the  night  before,  and  were 
now  placed  in  the  boat,  with  our  blankets  and 


198          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX. 

instruments,  consisting  of  a  sextant,  telescope, 
spy-glass,  thermometer,  and  barometer. 

"  In  the  course  of  the  morning  we  discovered 
that  two  of  the  cylinders  leaked  so  much  as  to 
require  one  man  constantly  at  the  bellows,  to 
keep  them  sufficiently  full  of  air  to  support 
the  boat.  Although  we  had  made  a  very 
early  start,  we  loitered  so  much  on  the  way — 
stopping  every  now  and  then,  and  floating  si- 
lently along,  to  get  a  shot  at  a  goose  or  a  duck 
— that  it  was  late  in  the  day  when  we  reached 
the  outlet.  The  river  here  divided  into  seve- 
ral branches,  filled  with  fluvials,  and  so  very 
shallow  that  it  was  with  difficulty  we  could  get 
the  boat  along,  being  obliged  to  get  out  and 
wade.  We  encamped  on  a  low  point  among 
rushes  and  young  willows,  where  there  was  a 
quantity  of  driftwood,  which  served  for  our  fires, 
The  evening  was  mild  and  clear ;  wre  made  a 
pleasant  bed  of  the  young  willows  ;  and  geese 
and  ducks  enough  had  been  killed  for  an  abun- 
dant supper  at  night,  and  for  breakfast  next 
morning.  The  stillness  of  the  night  was  en- 
livened by  millions  of  water-fowl. 

"Sept.  9. — The  day  was  clear  and  calm ;  the 
thermometer  at  sunrise  at  49°.  As  is  usual 
with  the  trappers  on  the  eve  of  any  enterprise, 
our  people  ^ad  made  dreams,  and  theirs  hap- 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.         199 

pencil  to  be  a  bad  one — one  which  always  pre- 
ceded evil — and  consequently  they  looked  very 
gloomy  this  morning ;  but  we  hurried  through 
our  breakfast,  in  order  to  make  an  early  start, 
and  have  all  the  day  before  us  for  our  adven- 
ture. The  channel  in  a  short  distance  became 
so  shallow  that  our  navigation  was  at  an  end, 
being  merely  a  sheet  of  soft  mud,  with  a  few 
inches  of  water,  and  sometimes  none  at  all, 
forming  the  low-water  shore  of  the  lake.  All 
this  place  was  absolutely  covered  with  flocks  of 
screaming  plover.  We  took  off  our  clothes,  and, 
getting  overboard,  commenced  dragging  th^ 
boat — making,  by  this  operation,  a  very  curi 
ous  trail,  and  a  very  disagreeable  smell  in 
stirring  up  the  mud,  as  we  sank  above  the 
knee  at  every  step.  The  water  here  was  still 
fresh,  with  only  an  insipid  and  disagreeable 
taste,  probably  derived  from  the  bed  of  fetid 
mud.  After  proceeding  in  this  way  about  a 
a  mi'e,  we  came  to  a  small  black  ridge  on  the 
bottom,  beyond  which  the  water  became  sud- 
denly salt,  beginning  gradually  to  deepen,  and 
the  bottom  was  sandy  and  firm.  It  was  a  re- 
markable division,  separating  the  fresh  water 
of  the  rivers  from  the  briny  water  of  the  lake, 
which  was  entirely  saturated  with  common  salt. 
Pushing  our  little  vessel  across  the  narrow 


200          LIRE    OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOTST. 

boundary,  we  sprang  on  board,  and  at  length 
were  afloat  on  the  waters  of  the  unknown 
sea. 

"We  did  not  steer  for  the  mountainous 
islands,  but  directed  our  course  towards  a 
lower  one,  which  it  had  been  decided  we  should 
first  visit,  the  summit  of  which  was  formed 
like  the  crater  at  the  upper  end  of  Bear  River 
valley.  So  long  as  we  could  touch  the  bottom 
with  our  paddles,  we  were  very  gay ;  but  grad- 
ually, as  the  water  deepened,  we  became  more 
still  in  our  frail  batteau  of  gum  cloth  distended 
with  air,  and  with  pasted  seams.  Although 
the  day  was  very  calm,  there  was  a  consider- 
able swell  on  the  lake ;  and  there  were  white 
patches  of  foam  on  the  surface,  which  were 
slowly  moving  to  the  southward,  indicating  the 
set  of  a  current  in  that  direction,  and  recalling 
the  recollection  of  the  whirlpool  stories.  The 
water  continued  to  deepen  as  we  advanced ; 
the  lake  becoming  almost  transparently  clear, 
of  an  extremely  beautiful  bright  green  color; 
and  the  spray,  which  was  thrown  into  the  boat 
and  over  our  clothes,  was  directly  converted 
into  a  crust  of  common  salt,  which  covered 
also  our  hands  and  arms.  i  Captain.'  said  Car- 
son, who  for  some  time  had  been  looking  sus- 
piciously at  some  whitening  appearances  out- 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  201 

side  the  nearest  islands,  '  what  are  those  yon- 
der?— won't  you  just  take  a  look  with  the 
glass?1  AVe  ceased  paddling  for  a  moment, 
and  found  them  to  be  the  caps  of  the  waves 
that  were  beginning  to  break  under  the  force 
of  a  strong  breeze  that  was  coming  up  the 
lake.  The  form  of  the  boat  seemed  to  be  an 
admirable  one,  and  it  rode  on  the  waves  like  a 
water  bird ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  it  was  ex- 
tremely slow  in  its  progress.  When  wre  were 
a  little  more  than  half  away  across  the  reach, 
two  of  the  divisions  between  the  cylinders 
gave  way,  and  it  required  the  constant  use  of 
the  bellows  to  keep  in  a  sufficient  quantity  of 
air.  For  a  long  time  we  scarcely  seemed  to 
approach  our  island,  but  gradually  we  worked 
across  the  rougher  sea  of  the  open  channel, 
into  the  smoother  water  under  the  Ice  of  the 
island,  and  began  to  discover  that  what  we 
took  for  a  long  row  of  pelicans,  ranged  on  the 
beach,  were  only  low  cliffs  whitened  with  salt 
by  the  spray  of  the  waves ;  and  about  noon 
we  reached  the  shore,  the  transparency  of  the 
water  enabling  us  to  see  the  bottom  at  a  con- 
siderable depth. 

"  The  cliffs  and  masses  of  rock  along  the 
shore  were  whitened  by  an  incrustation  of  salt 
where  the  waves  dashed  up  against  them ;  and 


202          LIFE    OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

the  evaporating  water,  which  had  been  left  in 
holes  and  hollows  on  the  surface  of  the  rocks, 
was  covered  with  a  crust  of  salt  about  ono- 
cMglith  of  an  inch  in  thickness. 

"  Carrying  with  us  the  barometer  and  other 
instruments,  in  the  afternoon  we  ascended  to 
the  highest  point  of  the  island — a  bare,  rocky 
peak,  800  feet  above  the  lake.  Standing  on 
the  summit,  we  enjoyed  an  extended  view  of 
the  lake,  inclosed  in  a  basin  of  rugged  moun- 
tains, which  sometimes  left  marshy  flats  and 
extensive  bottoms  between  them  and  the  shore, 
and  in  other  places  came  directly  down  into 
the  water  with  bold  and  precipitous  bluffs. 

"  As  we  looked  over  the  vast  expanse  of 
water  spread  out  beneath  us,  and  strained  our 
eyes  along  the  silent  shores  over  which  hung 
so  much  doubt  and  uncertainty,  and  which 
were  so  full  of  interest  to  us,  I  could  hardly 
repress  the  almost  irresistible  desire  to  con- 
tinue our  exploration ;  but  the  lengthening 
snow  on  the  mountains  was  a  plain  indication 
of  the  advancing  season,  and  our  frail  linen 
bout  appeared  so  insecure  that  I  was  unwilling 
to  trust  our  lives  to  the  uncertainties  of  tho 
lake.  I  therefore  unwillingly  resolved  to  ter- 
minate our  survey  here,  and  remain  satisfied  for 
the  present  with  what  we  had  been  able  to  add 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  203 

to  the  unknown  geography  of  the  region.  "We 
felt  pleasure  also  in  remembering  that  we  were 
the  first  who,  in  the  traditionary  annals  of  the 
country,  had  visited  the  islands,  and  broken, 
with  the  cheerful  sound  of  human  voices,  the 
long  solitude  of  the  place. 

"  I  accidentally  left  on  the  summit  the  brass 
cover  to  the  object  end  of  my  spy-glass ;  and 
as  it  will  probably  remain  there  undisturbed 
by  Indians,  it  will  furnish  matter  of  specula- 
tion to  some  future  traveler.  In  our  excur- 
sions about  the  island,  we  did  not  meet  with 
any  kind  of  animal ;  a  magpie,  and  another 
larger  bird,  probably  attracted  by  the  smoke 
of  our  fire,  paid  us  a  visit  from  the  shore,  and 
were  the  only  living  things  seen  during  our 
stay.  The  rock  constituting  the  cliffs  along 
the  shore  where  we  were  encamped,  is  a  tal- 
cous  rock,  or  steatite,  with  brown  spar. 

"  At  sunset,  the  temperature  was  70°.  We 
had  arrived  just  in  time  to  obtain  a  meridian 
altitude  of  the  sun,  and  other  observations 
were  obtained  this  evening,  which  place  our 
camp  in  latitude  41°  10  42^,  and  longitude 
112°  21'  05"  from  Greenwich.  From  a  discus- 
sion of  the  barometrical  observations  made 
during  our  stay  on  the  shores  of  the  lake,  we 
have  adopted  4,200  feet  for  its  elevation  above 


204  LIFE    OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON, 

the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  In  the  first  disappoint- 
ment we  felt  from  the  dissipation  of  our  dream 
of  the  fertile  islands,  I  called  this  Disappoint- 
ment Island. 

"  Out  of  the  driftwood,  we  made  ourselves 
pleasant  little  lodges,  open  to  the  water,  and, 
after  having  kindled  large  fires  to  excite  the 
wonder  of  any  straggling  savage  on  the  lake 
shores,  lay  down,  for  the  first  time  in  a  long 
journey,  in  perfect  security;  no  one  thinking 
about  his  arms.  The  evening  was  extremely 
bright  and  pleasant ;  but  the  wind  rose  during 
the  night,  and  the  waves  began  to  break  hea- 
vily on  the  shore,  making  our  Island  tremble. 
I  had  not  expected  in  our  inland  journey  to 
hear  the  roar  of  an  ocean  surf;  and  the 
strangeness  of  our  situation,  and  the  excite- 
ment we  felt  in  the  associated  interests  of  the 
place,  made  this  one  of  the  most  interesting 
nights  I  remember  during  our  long  expedi- 
tion. 

"  In  the  morning,  the  surf  was  breaking 
heavily  )n  the  shore,  and  we  were  up  early. 
The  lake  was  dark  and  agitated,  and  we  hur- 
ried through  our  scanty  breakfast,  and  em- 
barked— having  first  filled  one  of  the  buckets 
with  water  from  which  it  was  intended  to  make 
fealt.  The  sun  had  risen  by  the  time  we  were 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER    CARSOX.  205 

ready  to  start ;  and  it  was  blowing  a  strong 
gale  of  wind,  almost  directly  off  the  shore,  and 
raising  a  considerable  sea,  in  which  our  boat 
strained  very  much.  It  roughened  as  we  got 
away  from  the  island,  and  it  required  all  the 
efforts  of  the  men  to  make  any  head  against 
the  wind  and  sea;  the  gale  rising  with  the 
sun ;  and  there  was  danger  of  being  blown  into 
one  of  the  open  reaches  beyond  the  island. 
At  the  distance  of  half  a  mile  from  the  beach, 
the  depth  of  water  was  sixteen  feet,  with  a  clay 
bottom ;  but,  as  the  working  of  the  boat  was 
very  severe  labor,  and  during  the  operation  of 
sounding,  it  was  necessary  to  cease  paddling, 
during  which,  the  boat  lost  considerable  way, 
I  was  unwilling  to  discourage  the  men,  and 
reluctantly  gave  up  my  intention  of  ascertain- 
ing the  depth  and  character  of  the  bed.  There 
was  a  general  shout  in  the  boat  when  we  found 
ourselves  in  one  fathom,  and  we  soon  after 
landed  on  a  low  point  of  mud,  where  we  un- 
loaded the  boat,  and  carried  the  baggage  to 
firmer  ground." 

Roughly  evaporated  over  the  fire,  the  five 
gallons  of*  water  from  this  lake  yielded  four- 
teen pints  of  very  fine-grained  and  very  white 
salt,  of  which  the  whole  lake  may  be  regarded 
as  a  saturated  solution. 


206          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

On  the  12th  they  resumed  their  journey,  re- 
turning by  the  same  route,  and  at  night  had  a 
supper  of  sea  gulls,  which  Carson  killed  near 
the  lake. 

The  next  day  they  continued  up  the  river, 
hunger  making  them  very  quiet  and  peaceable ; 
and  there  was  rarely  an  oath  to  be  heard  in 
the  camp — not  even  a  solitary  enfant  de  garce 
It  was  time  for  the  men  with  an  expected  sup- 
ply of  provisions  from  Fitzpatrick  to  be  in 
the  neighborhood ;  and  the  gun  was  fired  at 
evening,  to  give  notice  of  their  locality,  but 
met  with  no  response. 

They  killed  to-day  a  fat  young  horse, 
purchased  from  the  Indians,  and  were  very 
soon  restored  to  gaiety  and  good  humor. 
Fremont  and  Mr.  Preuss,  not  having  yet 
overcome  the  prejudices  of  civilization,  did 
not  partake,  preferring  to  turn  in  supper- 
less. 

The  large  number  of  emigrants  constantly 
encamping  here,  had  driven  the  game  into  the 
mountains,  so  that  not  an  elk  or  antelope  was 
seen  upon  the  route ;  but  an  antelope  was  pur- 
chased from  an  Indian,  for  a  little  powder  and 
some  ball,  and  they  camped  early  to  enjoy  an 
abundant  supper;  which,  while  not  yet  pro 
pared,  was  interrupted  by  the  arrival  of  a 


LIFE   OF   CH-tviSTOPHEK   CARSON.  207 

trapper,  who  startled  and  rejoiced  all  by  an- 
nouncing the  glad  news,  that  Mr.  Fitzpatrick 
was  in  camp  a  little  way  from  them,  with  a 
plentiful  supply  of  provisions,  flour,  r  x,e,  dried 
moat,  and  even  butter. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

THE  difficulty,  in  view  of  the  approaching 
winter  season,  of  supporting  a  large  party,  de- 
termined Fremont  to  send  back  a  number  of 
the  men  who  had  become  satisfied  that  they 
were  not  fitted  for  the  laborious  service  and 
frequent  privation  to  which  they  were  necessa- 
rily exposed,  and  which  there  was  reason  to 
believe  would  become  more  severe  in  the 
further  extension  of  the  voyage.  They  were 
accordingly  called  together,  and  after  being 
fully  informed  as  to  the  nature  of  the  duties 
imposed  upon  them,  and  the  hardships  they 
would  have  to  undergo,  eleven  of  the  party 
consented  to  abandon  Fremont,  and  return ; 
but  Carson  was  not  one  of  these. 

Taking  leave  of  the  homeward  party,  they 
resumed  their  journey  down  the  valley,  the 
weather  being  very  cold,  and  the  rain  coming 
in  hard  gusts,  which  the  wind  blew  directly  in 

their  faces.  They  forded  the  Portneuf  in  a  storm 
(208) 


LIFE   OF   CIIRISTOrilER   CARSON.          209 

of  rain,  the  water  in  the  river  being  frequently 
up  to  the  axles. 

Fremont  in.  his  official  report  thus  enum- 
erates some  of  the  difficulties  and  sufferings 
the  party  had  to  encounter : 

"  September  27. — It  was  now  no  longer  pos- 
sible, as  in  our  previous  journey,  to  travel  reg- 
ularly every  day,  and  find  at  any  moment  a 
convenient  place  for  repose  at  noon,  or  a  camp 
at  night;  but  the  halting  places  were  now 
generally  fixed  along  the  road,  by  the  nature 
of  the  country,  at  places  where,  with  water, 
there  was  a  little  scanty  grass.  Since  leaving 
the  American  falls,  the  road  had  frequently 
been  very  bad ;  the  many  short,  steep  ascents 
exhausting  the  strength  of  our  worn  out  ani- 
mals, requiring  always  at  such  places  the  assis- 
tance of  the  men  to  get  up  each  cart,  one  by 
one ;  and  our  progress  with  twelve  or  fourteen 
wheeled  carriages,  though  light  and  made  for 
the  purpose,  in  such  a  rocky  country,  was  ex- 
tremely slow. 

"  Carson  had  met  here  three  or  four  buffalo 
bulls,  two  of  which  were  killed.  They  were 
among  the  pioneers  which  had  made  the  exper- 
iment of  colonizing  in  the  valley  of  the  Co- 
lumbia. 

"  Opposite  to  the  encampment,  a  subterra- 
14 


210          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER    JARSON. 

nean  river  bursts  out  directly  from  the  face  of 
the  escarpment,  and  falls  in  white  foam  to  the 
river  below.  The  main  river  is  enclosed  with 
mural  precipices,  which  form  its  characteristic 
feature,  along  a  great  portion  of  its  course.  A 
melancholy  and  strange-looking  country — -one 
of  fracture,  and  violence,  and  fire. 

"  We  had  brought  with  us,  when  we  sepa- 
rated from  the  camp,  a  large  gaunt  ox,  in  ap- 
pearance very  poor  ;  but,  being  killed  to-night, 
to  the  great  joy  of  the  people,  he  was  found  to 
be  remarkably  fat.  As  usual  at  such  occur- 
rences, the  evening  was  devoted  to  gaiety  and 
feasting;  abundant  fare  now  made  an  epoch 
among  us ;  and  in  this  laborious  life,  in  such  a 
country  as  this,  our  men  had  but  little .  else  to 
enjoy." 

On  arriving  at  the  ford  where  the  road 
crosses  to  the  right  bank  of  Snake  River,  an 
Indian  was  hired  to  conduct  them  through  the 
ford,  which  proved  impracticable ;  the  water 
sweeping  away  the  howitzer  and  nearly  drown- 
ing the  mules.  Fortunately  they  had  a  re- 
source in  a  boat,  which  wTas  filled  with  air  and 
launched ;  and  at  seven  o'clock  were  safely  en- 
camped on  the  opposite  bank,  the  animals 
swimming  across,  and  the  carriage,  howitzer, 


LIFK   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON  211 

and  baggage  of  the  camp  being  carried  over  in 
the  boat. 

It  was  while  at  Fort  Boise  where  Fremont 
first  met  Mons.  Payette,  an  employee  of  the 
Hudson  Bay  Co.,  that  he  came  across  the 
"  Fish-eating  Indians,"  a  class  lower  if  possible 
in  the  scale  of  humanity  than  the  "Diggers." 
He  says  : 

"  Many  little  accounts  and  scattered  histo- 
ries, together  writh  an  acquaintance  which  I 
gradually  acquired  of  their  modes  of  life,  had 
left  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  of  this  vast 
region  pictured  in  my  mind  as  a  race  of  people 
whose  great  and  constant  occupation  was  the 
means  of  procuring  a  subsistence. 

"  While  the  summer  weather  and  the  salmon 
lasted,  they  lived  contentedly  and  happily, 
scattered  along  the  different  streams  where 
the  fish  were  to  be  found ;  and  as  soon  as  the 
winter  snows  began  to  fall,  little  smokes  would 
be  seen  rising  among  the  mountains,  where 
they  would  be  found  in  miserable  groups, 
starving  out  the  winter ;  and  sometimes,  ac- 
cording to  the  general  belief,  reduced  to  the 
horror  of  cannibalism — the  strong,  of  course, 
preying  on  the  weak.  Certain  it  is,  they  aro 
driven  to  an  extremity  for  food,  and  eat  every 
insect,  and  every  creeping  thing,  however 


212          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

loathsome  and  repulsive.  Snails,  lizards,  ants 
— all  are  devoured  with  the  readiness  and 
greediness  of  mere  animals." 

The  remainder  of  the  overland  journey, 
until  they  reached  Nez  Perce,  one  of  the  trad- 
ing establishments  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Com- 
pany, was  not  marked  by  any  incident  bring- 
ing Carson  into  special  notice. 

Having  now  completed  the  connection  of 
his  explorations  with  those  of  Commander 
Wilkes,  and  which  was  the  limit  of  his  in- 
structions, Fremont  commenced  preparations 
for  his  return,  Carson  being  left  at  the  Dalles 
with  directions  to  occupy  the  people  in  making 
pack-saddles,  and  refitting  the  equippage ; 
while  Fremont  continued  his  journey  to  the 
Mission,  a  few  miles  down  the  Columbia  River, 
where  he  passed  a  few  days  in  comparative 
luxury. 

The  few  days  of  rest,  added  to  an  abundance 
of  wholesome  food,  had  so  far  recruited  the 
party,  that  they  were  soon  prepared  to  encoun- 
ter and  conquer  the  difficulties  of  this  overland 
journey  in  mid- winter.  Three  principal  ob- 
jects were  indicated  by  Fremont  for  explora- 
tion and  research,  and  which,  despite  the  ob- 
Btacles  which  the  season  must  so  surely  inter 
pose,  he  had  determined  to  visit. 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.          213 

The  first  of  these  points  was  the  Tlainath 
Lake,  on  the  table-land  between  the  head  of 
Fall  River,  which  comes  to  the  Columbia,  and 
the  Sacramento,  which  goes  to  the  bay  of  San 
Francisco  ;  and  from  which  lake  a  river  of  the 
game  name  makes  its  way  westwardly  direct  to 
the  ocean. 

From  this  lake  their  course  was  intended  to 
be  about  southeast,  to  a  reported  lake  called 
Mary's,  at  some  days'  journey  in  the  Great 
Basin ;  and  thence,  still  on  southeast,  to  the 
reputed  Buenaventura  River,  which  has  had  a 
place  in  so  many  maps,  and  countenanced  the 
belief  of  the  existence  of  a  great  river  flowing 
from  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  the  Bay  of  San 
Francisco.  From  the  Buenaventura,  the  next 
point  was  intended  to  be  in  that  section  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains  wrhich  includes  the  heads  of 
Arkansas  River,  and  of  the  opposite  waters  of 
the  Californian  Gulf;  and  thence  down  tho 
Arkansas  to  Bent's  Fort,  and  home.  This 
was  the  projected  line  of  return — a  great  part  of 
it  absolutely  new  to  geographical,  botanical,  and 
geological  science — and  the  subject  of  reports 
in  relation  to  lakes,  rivers,  deserts,  and  sa- 
vages, hardly  above  the  condition  of  mere  wild 
animals,  which  inflamed  desire  to  know  what 
this  terra  incognita  really  contained 


214  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

It  was  a  serious  enterprise  at  the  commence- 
ment of  winter  to  undertake  the  traverse  of 
such  a  region,  and  with  a  party  consisting 
only  of  twenty-five  persons,  and  they  of  many 
nations — American,  French,  German,  Cana- 
dian, Indian,  and  colored — and  most  of  them 
young,  several  being  under  twenty-one  years 
of  age.  All  knew  that  a  strange  country  was 
to  be  explored,  and  dangers  and  hardships  to 
be  encountered;  but  no  one  blenched  at  the 
prospect.  On  the  contrary,  courage  and  con- 
fidence animated  the  whole  party.  Cheerful- 
ness, readiness,  subordination,  prompt  obedi- 
ence, characterized  all ;  nor  did  any  extremity 
of  peril  and  privation,  to  which  they  were  after- 
wards exposed,  ever  belie,  or  derogate  from, 
the  fine  spirit  of  this  brave  and  generous  com- 
mencement. 

For  the  support  of  the  party,  he  had  pro- 
vided at  Vancouver  a  supply  of  provisions  for 
not  less  than  three  months,  consisting  princi- 
pally of  flour,  peas,  and  tallow — the  latter 
being  used  in  cooking ;  and,  in  addition  to 
this,  they  had  purchased  at  the  mission,  some 
California  cattle,  which  were  to  be  driven  on 
the  hoof.  They  had  one  hundred  and  four 
mules  and  horses — part  of  the  latter  procured 
from  the  Ind'.^ns  about  the  mission ;  and  for 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  215 

the  sustenance  of  which,  their  reliance  was 
upon  the  grass  which  might  be  found,  and  the 
soft  porous  wood,  which  was  to  be  substituted 
when  there  was  no  grass. 

Mr.  Fitzpatrick,  with  Mr.  Talbot  and  the 
remainder  of  the  party,  arrived  on  the  21st; 
and  the  camp  was  now  closely  engaged  in  the 
labor  of  preparation.  Mr.  Perkins  succeeded 
in  obtaining  as  a  guide,  to  the  Tlamath  Lake, 
two  Indians — one  of  whom  had  been  there, 
and  bore  tae  marks  of  several  wounds  he  had 
received  from  some  of  the  Indians  in  the 
neighborhood. 

Tlamath  Lake,  however,  on  examination, 
proved  to  be  simply  a  shallow  basin,  which, 
for  a  short  period  at  the  time  of  melting  snows, 
is  covered  with  water  from  the  neighboring 
mountains ;  but  this  probably  soon  runs  off, 
and  leaves  for  the  remainder  of  the  year  a 
green  savannah,  through  the  midst  of  which, 
the  river  Tlamath,  which  flows  to  the  ocean, 
winds  its  way  to  the  outlet  on  the  southwestern 
side. 

After  leaving  Tlamath  Lake  the  part} 
headed  for  Mary's  Lake,  which,  however, 
alter  incredible  sufferings  and  hardships,  they 
failed  to  discover,  but  they  found  one  which 
was  appropriately  christened  "  Pyramid  Lake," 


216          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

and  here  the  record  of  toils,  dangers  and  suf 
ferings,  undergone  by  the  whole  party,  can 
only  be  told  in  the  language  of  him,  who 
cheerfully  toiled  and  suffered  with  those  under 
his  command,  and  it  is  not  too  much  to  say, 
that  with  the  exception  of  the  "  Strain  ex- 
pedition," across  the  Isthmus  of  Darien,  no 
party  of  men  have  ever  lived  to  narrate  such 
sad  experiences.  We  therefore  let  Fremont, 
in  his  own  modest  way,  tell  the  tale  of  his  own 
and  his  cemjp'inions'  sufferings. 


CHAPTER   XXII. 

"  January  3. — A  fog,  so  dense  that  we  could 
not  see  a  hundred  yards,  covered  the  country, 
and  the  men  tlxat  were  sent  out  after  the  horses 
were  bewildered  and  lost ;  and  we  were  conse- 
quently detained  at  camp  until  late  in  the  day. 
Our  situation  had  now  become  a  serious  one. 
We  had  reached  and  run  over  the  position 
where,  according  to  the  best  maps  in  my  pos- 
session, we  should  have  found  Mary's  Lake  or 
river.  We  were  evidently  on  the  verge  of  the 
desert  which  had  been  reported  to  us ;  and  the 
appearance  of  the  country  was  so  forbidding, 
that  I  was  afraid  to  enter  it,  and  determined  to 
bear  away  to  the  southward,  keeping  close 
along  the  mountains,  in  the  full  expectation  of 
reaching  the  Buenaventura  River.  This  morn- 
ing I  put  every  man  in  the  camp  on  foot — my- 
self, of  course,  among  the  rest — and  in  this 
manner  lightened  by  distribution  the  loads  of 

the  an  finals. 

(217) 


218  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER    CARSON. 

"  January  4. — The  fog  to-day  was  still  more 
dense,  and  the  people  again  were  bewildered 
We  traveled  a  few  miles  around  the  western 
point  of  the  ridge,  and  encamped  where  there 
were  a  few  tufts  of  grass,  but  no  water.  Our 
animals  now  were  in  a  very  alarming  state, 
and  there  was  increasing  anxiety  in  the  camp. 

"  January  5. — Same  dense  fog  continued, 
and  one  of  the  mules  died  in  camp  this  morn- 
ing. We  moved  to  a  place  where  there  was  a 
little  better  grass,  about  two  miles  distant. 
Taplin,  one  of  our  best  men,  who  had  gone  out 
on  a  scouting  excursion,  ascended  a  mountain 
near  by,  and  to  his  great  surprise  emerged  into 
a  region  of  bright  sunshine,  in  which  the  upper 
parts  of  the  mountain  were  glowing,  while 
below  all  was  obscured  in  the  darkest  fog. 

"  January  6. — The  fog  continued  the  same, 
and  with  Mr.  Preuss  and  Carson,  I  ascended 
the  mountain,  to  sketch  the  leading  features  of 
the  country,  as  some  indication  of  our  future 
route,  while  Mr.  Fitzpatrick  explored  the 
country  below.  In  a  very  short  distance  we 
had  ascended  above  the  mist,  but  the  view  ob- 
tained was  not  very  gratifying.  The  fog  had 
partially  cleared  off  from  below  when  we 
reached  the  summit;  and  in  the  south-west 
corner  of  a  basin  communicating  with  that  in 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  219 

which  we  had  encamped,  we  saw  a  lofty  column 
of  smoke,  16  miles  distant,  indicating  the 
presence  of  hot  springs.  There,  also,  appeared 
to  be  the  outlet  of  those  draining  channels  of 
the  country;  and,  as  such  places  afforded  al- 
ways more  or  less  grass,  I  determined  to  steer 
in  that  direction.  The  ridge  we  had  ascended 
appeared  to  be  composed  of  fragments  of  white 
granite.  We  saw  here  traces  of  sheep  and 
antelope. 

"  Entering  the  neighboring  valley,  and 
crossing  the  bed  of  another  lake,  after  a  hard 
day's  travel  over  ground  of  yielding  mud  and 
sand,  we  reached  the  springs,  where  we  found 
an  abundance  of  grass,  which,  though  only 
tolerably  good,  made  this  place,  with  reference 
to  the  past,  a  refreshing  and  agreeable  spot. 

"  This  is  the  most  extraordinary  locality  of 
hot  springs  we  had  met  during  the  journey. 
The  basin  of  the  largest  one  has  a  circumfer- 
ence of  several  hundred  feet ;  but  there  is  at 
one  extremity  a  circular  space  of  about  fifteen 
feet  in  diameter,  entirely  occupied  by  the  ooil* 
ing  water.  It  boils  up  at  irregular  intervals, 
and  with  much  noise.  The  water  is  clear,  and 
the  spring  deep  ;  a  pole  about  sixteen  feet  long 
was  easily  immersed  in  the  centre,  but  tve 


220          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

had  no  means  of  forming  a  good  idea  of  tL<- 
depth. 

"Taking  with  me  Godey  and  Carson,  1 
made  to-day  a  thorough  exploration  of  the 
neighboring  valleys,  and  found  in  a  ravine  in 
the  bordering  mountains  a  good  campihg 
place,  where  was  water  in  springs,  and  a  suf- 
ficient quantity  of  grass  for  a  night.  Oversha- 
dowing the  springs  were  some  trees  of  the 
sweet  cotton-wood,  which,  after  a  long  int^val 
of  absence,  we  saw  again  with  pleasure,  re- 
garding them  as  harbingers  of  a  better  coun- 
try. To  us,  they  were  eloquent  of  green  prai- 
ries and  buffalo.  We  found  here  a  broad  and 
plainly  marked  trail,  on  which  there  were  tracks 
of  horses,  and  we  appeared  to  have  regained 
one  of  the  thoroughfares  which  pass  by  the 
watering  places  of  the  country.  On  the  west- 
ern mountains  of  the  valley,  with^  which  this 
of  the  boiling  spring  communicates,  we  re- 
marked scattered  cedars — probably  an  indica- 
tion that  we  were  on  the  borders  of  the  tim- 
bered region  extending  to  the  Pacific.  We 
reached  the  camp  at  sunset,  after  a  day's  ride 
of  about  forty  miles. 

"  January  10. — We  continued  our  reconnois- 
gance  ahead,  pursuing  a  south  direction  in  the 
basin  along  the  ridge ;  the  camp  following 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  221 

slowly  after.  On  a  large  trail  there  is  never 
any  doubt  of  finding  suitable  places  lor  en- 
campments. We  reached  the  end  of  the  basin, 
where  we  found,  in  a  hollow  of  the  mountain 
which  enclosed  it,  an  abundance  of  good  bunch 
grasg.  Leaving  a  signal  for  the  party  to  en- 
camp, we  con'.aued  our  way  up  the  hollow, 
intending  to  see  what  lay  beyond  the  moun- 
tain. The  hollow  was  several  miles  long, 
forming  a  good  pass,  the  snow  deepening  to 
about  a  foot  as  we  neared  the  summit.  Be- 
yond, a  defile  between  the  mountains  descended 
rapidly  about  two  thousand  feet;  and,  filling 
up  all  the  lower  space,  was  a  sheet  of  green 
water,  some  twenty  miles  broad.  It  broke 
upon  our  eyes  like  the  ocean.  The  neighbor- 
ing peaks  rose  high  above  us,  and  we  ascended 
one  of  them  to  obtain  a  better  view.  The 
waves  were  curling  in  the  breeze,  and  their 
dark-green  color  showed  it  to  be  a  body  of 
deep  water.  For  a  long  time  we  sat  enjoying 
the  view,  for  we  had  become  fatigued  with 
mountains,  and  the  free  expanse  of  moving 
waves  was  very  grateful.  It  was  set  like  a 
gem  in  the  mountains,  which,  from  our  posi- 
tion, seemed  to  enclose  it  almost  entirely.  At 
the  western  end  it  communicated  with  the 
line  of  basins  we  had  left  a  few  days  since ; 


222  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER    CARSON. 

and  on  the  opposite  side  it  swept  a  ridge  of 
snowy  mountains,  the  foot  of  the  great  Sierra. 
Its  position  at  first  inclined  us  to  believo 
it  Mary's  Lake,  but  the  rugged  mountains 
were  so  entirely  discordant  with  descriptions 
of  its  low  rushy  shores  and  jpen  country,  that 
we  concluded  it  some  unknown  body  of  water; 
which  it  afterwards  proved  to  be. 

"  We  saw  before  us,  in  descending  from  the 
pass,  a  great  continuous  range,  along  which 
stretched  the  valley  of  the  river ;  the  lower 
parts  steep,  and  dark  with  pines,  while  above 
it  was  hidden  in  clouds  of  snow.  This,  we  felt 
instantly  satisfied  was  the  central  ridge  of  the 
Sierra  Nevada,  the  great  California  mountain, 
which  only  now  intervened  between  us  and 
the  waters  of  the  bay.  We  had  made  a  forced 
inarch  of  26  miles,  and  three  mules  had  given 
out  on  the  road.  Up  to  this  point,  with  the 
exception  of  two  stolen  by  Indians,  we  had 
lost  none  of  the  horses  which  had  been  brought 
from  the  Columbia  river,  and  a  number  of 
these  were  still  strong  and  in  tolerably  good 
order.  We  had  now  sixty-seven  animals  in 
the  band. 

"  We  had  scarcely  lighted  our  fires,  when  the 
camp  was  crowded  with  nearly  naked  Indians. 
There  were  two  who  appeared  particularly  in- 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  223 

telligcnt — one,  a  somewhat  old  man.  He  told 
me  that,  before  the  snows  fell,  it  was  six  sleeps 
to  the  place  where  the  whites  -lived,  but  that 
now  it  was  impossible  to  cross  the  mountain  on 
account  of  the  deep  snow ;  and  showing  us,  as 
the  others  had  done,  that  it  was  over  our 
heads,  he  urged  us  strongly  to  follow  tho 
course  of  the  river,  which  he  said  would  con- 
duct us  to  a  lake  in  which  there  were  many 
large  fish.  There,  he  said,  were  many  people; 
there  was  no  snow  on  the  ground ;  and  we 
might  remain  there  until  spring.  From  their 
descriptions,  we  were  enabled  to  judge  that  wo 
had  encamped  on  the  upper  water  of  the  Sal- 
mon-trout River.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to 
say  that  our  communication  was  only  by  signs, 
as  we  understood  nothing  of  their  language ; 
but  they  spoke,  notwithstanding,  rapidly  and 
vehemently,  explaining  what  they  considered 
the  folly  of  our  intentions,  and  urging  us  to  go 
down  to  the  lake.  Tah-ve,  a  word  signifying 
snow,  we  very  soon  learned  to  know,  from  its 
frequent  repetition.  I  told  him  that  the  men 
and  the  horses  were  strong,  and  that  we  would 
break  a  road  through  the  snow ;  and  spreading 
before  him  our  bales  of  scarlet  cloth,  and  trink- 
ets, showed  him  what  we  would  give  for  a 
guide.  It  was  necessary  to  obtain  one,  if  pos- 


224          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER    CARSON. 

sible ;  for  I  had  determined  here  to  attempt 
the  passage  of  the  mountain.  Pulling  a  bunch 
of  grass  from  the  ground,  after  a  short  discus- 
sion among  themselves,  the  old  man  made  us 
Comprehend,  that  if  we  could  break  through 
the  snow,  at  the  end  of  three  days  we  would 
come  down  upon  grass,  which  he  showed 
us  would  be  about  six  inches  high,  and  where 
the  ground  was  entirely  free.  So  far  he  said 
he  had  been  in  hunting  for  elk  ;  but  beyond 
that  (and  he  closed  his  eyes)  he  had  seen  noth- 
ing ;  but  there  was  one  among  them  who  had 
been  to  the  whites,  and,  going  out  of  the  lodge, 
he  returned  with  a  young  man  of  very  intelli- 
gent appearance.  Here,  said  he,  is  a  young 
man  who  has  seen  the  whites  with  his  own 
eyes ;  and  he  swore,  first  by  the  sky,  and  then 
by  the  ground,  that  what  he  said  was  true 
With  a  large  present  of  goods,  we  prevailed 
upon  this  young  man  to  be  our  guide,  and  he 
acquired  among  us  the  name  Melo — a  word 
signifying  friend,  which  they  used  very  fre- 
quently. He  was  thinly  clad,  and  nearly  bare- 
foot ;  his  moccasins  being  about  worn  out.  We 
gave  him  skins  to  make  a  new  pair,  and  to  en- 
able him  to  perform  his  undertaking  to  us. 
The  Indians  remained  in  camp  during  the 
ni^rht,  and  we  kept  the  guide  and  two  others 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  225 

to  sleep  in  the  lodge  with  us — Carson  lying 
across  the  door,  and  having  made  them  com 
prohcnd  the  use  of  our  fire-arms." 

Fremont  here,  after  a  consultation  with  some 
Indians  who  came  into  his  camp,  made  up  his 
mind  to  attempt  the  passage  of  the  mountains 
at  every  hazard.  He  therefore,  to  quote  his 
cwn  words,  called  his  men  together,  and  "  re- 
minded them  of  the  beautiful  valley  of  the 
Sacramento,  with  which  they  were  familiar 
from  the  descriptions  of  Carson,  who  had  been 
there  some  fifteen  years  ago,  and  who,  in  our 
late  privations,  had  delighted  us  in  speaking 
of  its  rich  pastures  and  abounding  game,  and 
drew  a  vivid  contrast  between  its  summer 
climate,  less  than  a  hundred  miles  distant,  and 
the  falling  snow  around  us.  I  informed  them 
(and  long  experience  had  given  them  confi- 
dence in  my  observations  and  good  instru- 
ments) that  almost  directly  west,  and  only 
about  seventy  miles  distant,  was  the  great 
fanning  establishment  of  Captain  S  utter — a 
gentleman  who  had  formerly  lived  in  Missouri, 
and,  emigrating  to  this  country,  had  become 
the  possessor  of  a  principality.  I  assured  them 
that,  from  the  heights  of  the  mountain  before 
us,  we  should  doubtless  see  the  valley  of  the 

Sacramento  River,  and  with  one  effort  place 
]5 


226  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX. 

ourselves  again  in  the  midst  of  plenty.  The 
people  received  this  decision  with  the  cheerful 
obedience  which  had  always  characterized 
them;  and  the  day  was  immediately  devoted 
to  the  preparations  necessary  to  enable  us  to 
tarry  it  into  effect.  Leggins,  moccasins,  cloth- 
ing—all were  put  into  the  best  state  to  resist 
the  cold.  Our  guide  was  n6t  neglected.  Ex- 
tremity of  suffering  might  make  him  desert ; 
we  therefore  did  the  best  we  could  for  him. 
Leggins,  moccasins,  some  articles  of  clothing, 
and  a  large  green  blanket,  in  addition  to  the 
blue  and  scarlet  cloth,  were  lavished  upon  him, 
and  to  his  great  and  evident  contentment.  He 
arrayed  himself  in  all  his  colors  ;  and,  clad  in 
green,  blue,  and  scarlet,  he  made  a  gay-looking 
Indian ;  and,  with  his  various  presents,  was 
probably  richer  and  better  clothed  than  any  of 
his  tribe  had  ever  been  before. 

"  I  have  already  said  that  our  provisions 
were  very  low ;  we  had  neither  tallow  nor 
grease  of  any  kind  remaining,  and  the  want 
of  salt  became  one  of  our  greatest  privations. 
The  poor  dog  wrhich  had  been  found  in  the 
Bear  River  valley,  and  which  had  been  a 
cowpagnon  de  voyage  ever  since,  had  now  be- 
come fat,  and  the  mess  to  which  it  belonged 
requested  permission  to  kill  it.  Leave  was 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  227 

granted.  Spread  out  on  the  snow,  the  meat 
looked  very  good ;  and  it  made  a  strengthen- 
ing meal  for  the  greater  part  of  the  camp. 

"  The  people  were  unusually  silent ;  foi 
every  man  knew  that  our  enterprise  was  Laz 
ardous,  and  the  issue  doubtful. 

"The  snow  deepened  rapidly,  and  it  soon  be- 
came necessary  to  break  a  road.  For  this  ser- 
vice, a  party  of  ten  was  formed,  mounted  on 
the  strongest  horses ;  each  man  in  succession 
opening  the  road  on  foot,  or  on  horseback, 
until  himself  and  his  horse  became  fatigued, 
when  he  stepped  aside ;  and,  the  remaining 
number  passing  ahead,  he  took  his  station  in 
the  rear. 

"  The  camp  had  been  all  the  day  occupied  in 
endeavoring  to  ascend  the  hill,  but  only  the 
best  horses  had  succeeded ;  the  animals,  gener- 
ally, not  having  sufficient  strength  to  bring 
themselves  up  without  the  packs ;  and  all  the 
line  of  road  between  this  and  the  springs  was 
strewed  with  camp  stores  and  equipage,  and 
horses  floundering  in  snow.  I  therefore  imme- 
diately encamped  on  the  ground  with  my  own 
mess,  which  was  in  advance,  and  directed  Mr, 
Fitzpatrick  to  encamp  at  the  springs,  and  send 
all  the  animals,  in  charge  of  Tabeau,  with  a 
strong  guard,  back  to  the  place  where  they  had 


228  LIFE   OF   CHKISTOPHER   CARSON. 

been  pastured  the  night  before.  Here  v.  as 
a  small  spot  of  level  ground,  protected  on 
one  side  by  the  mountain,  and  on  the  other 
sheltered  by  a  little  ridge  of  rock.  It  was  an 
open  grove  of  pines,  which  assimilated  in  si/e 
to  the  grandeur  of  the  mountain,  being  fre- 
quently six  feet  in  diameter. 

"  To-night  we  had  no  shelter,  but  we  made  a 
large  fire  around  the  trunk  of  one  of  the  huge 
pines;  and  covering  the  snow  with  small 
boughs,  on  which  we  spread  our  blankets,  soon 
made  ourselves  comfortable.  The  night  was 
very  bright  and  clear,  though  the  thermometer 
was  only  at  10°.  A  strong  wind  which  sprang 
up  at  sundown,  made  it  intensely  cold  ;  and 
this  was  one  of  the  bitterest  nights  during  the 
journey. 

"  Two  Indians  joined  our  party  here ;  and 
one  of  them,  an  old  man,  immediately  began 
to  harangue  us,  saying  that  ourselves  and  ani- 
mals would  perish  in  the  snow  ;  and  that,  if  we 
would  go  back,  he  wrould  show  us  another  and 
a  better  way  across  the  mountain.  He  spoke 
in  a  very  loud  voice,  and  there  was  a  singular 
repetition  of  phrases  and  arrangement  of 
words,  which  rendered  his  speech  striking,  and 
not  unmusical. 

4i  We  had  now  begun  to  understand  some 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON,  229 

words,  and,  with  the  aid  of  signs,  easily  com- 
prehended the  old  man's  simple  ideas.  'Rods 
upon  rock — rock  upon  rock — sn6w  upon  snow 
— snow  upon  snow,'  said  he  ;  '  even  if  you  gel 
over  the  snow,  you  will  not  be  able  to  get 
down  from  the  mountains.'  He  made  us  the 
sign  of  precipices,  and  showed  us  how  the  feet 
of  the  horses  would  slip,  and  throw  them  off 
from  the  narrow  trails  which  led  along  their 
sides.  Our  Chinook,  who  comprehended  even 
more  readily  than  ourselves,  and  believed  our 
situation  hopeless,  covered  his  head  with  his 
blanket,  and  began  to  weep  and  lament.N  '  I 
wanted  to  see  the  whites,'  said  he ;  '  I  came 
away  from  my  own  people  to  see  the  whites, 
and  I  wouldn't  care  to  die  among  them ;  but 
here' — and  he  looked  around  into  the  cold 
night  and  gloomy  forest,  and,  drawing  his 
blanket  over  his  head,  began  again  to  lament 

"  Seated  around  the  tree,  the  fire  illumina- 
ting the  rocks  and  the  tall  bolls  of  the  pines 
round  about,  and  the  old  Indian  haranguing, 
we  presented  a  group  of  very  serious  faces. 

"  February  5. — The  night  had  been  too  cold 
to  sleep,  and  we  were  up  very  early.  Our 
guide  was  standing  by  the  fire  with  all  his 
linery  on  ;  and  seeing  him  shiver  in  the  cold,  I 
threw  on  his  shoulders  one  of  my  blankets. 


230  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

We  missed  him  a  few  minutes  afterwards,  and 
never  saw  him  again.  He  had  deserted.  His 
bad  faith  and  treachery  were  in  perfect  keeping 
with  the  estimate  of  Indian  character,  which  a 
long  intercourse  with  this  people  had  grad- 
ually forced  upon  my  mind. 

"  While  a  portion  of  the  camp  were  occupied 
in  bringing  up  the  baggage  to  this  point,  the 
remainder  were  busied  in  making  sledges  and 
snow  shoes.  I  had  determined  to  explore  the 
mountain  ahead',  and  the  sledges  were  to  be 
used  in  transporting  the  baggage. 

"Crossing  the  open  basin,  in  a  march  of 
about  ten  miles  we  reached  the  top  of  one 
of  the  peaks,  to  the  left  of  the  pass  indi- 
cated by  our  guide.  Far  below  us,  dimmed 
by  the  distance,  was  a  large,  snowless  valley, 
bounded  on  the  western  side,  at  the  distance 
of  about  a  hundred  miles,  by  a  low  range  of 
mountains,  which  Carson  recognized  with  de- 
light as  the  mountains  bordering  the  coast. 
4  There/  said  he,  '  is  the  little  mountain — it  is 
fifteen  years  ago  since  I  saw  it ;  but  I  am  just  as 
sure  as  if  I  had  seen  it  yesterday.'  Between 
us,  then,  and  this  low  coast  range,  was  tin 
va)!ey  of  the  Sacramento  ;  and  no  one  who  had 
not  accompanied  us  through  the  incidents  of 
our  life  for  the  last  few  months,  could  realize 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  231 

the  delight  with  which  at  last  we  looked  down 
upon  it.  At  the  distance  of  apparently  thirty 
miles  beyonci  us  were  distinguished  spots  of 
prairie ;  and  a  dark  line,  which  could  be  traced 
with  the  glass,  was  imagined  to  be  the  course 
of  the  river;  but  we  were  evidently  at  a  great 
height  above  the  valley,  and  between  us  and 
the  plains  extended  miles  of  snowy  fields  and 
broken  ridges  of  pine-covered  mountains. 

"  It  was  late  in  the  day  when  we  turned 
towards  the  camp ;  and  it  grew  rapidly  cold 
as  it  drew  towards  night.  One  of  the  men  be- 
came fatigued,  and  his  feet  began  to  freeze, 
and  building  a  fire  'in  the  trunk  of  a  dry  old 
cedar,  Mr.  Fitzpatrick  remained  with  him 
until  his  clothes  could  be  dried,  and  he  was  in 
a  condition  to  come  on.  After  a  day's  march 
of  twenty  miles,  we  straggled  into  camp,  ono 
after  another,  at  nightfall ;  the  greater  number 
excessively  fatigued,  only  two  of  the  party 
having  ever  traveled  on  snow-shoes  before. 

"All  our  energies  were  now  directed  to  getting 

our  animals  across  the  snow;  and  it  was  sup- 

•tl  that,  after  all  the  baggage  had  been  drawn 

with  the  sleighs  over  the  trail  we  had  made,  it 

would  be  sufficiently  hard  to  bear  our  animals. 

••At  several  places,  between  this  point  and  the 
ridge,  we  had  disc*  vered  some  grassy  spots, 


232  LIFE   OF   CHEISTOPHEK   CAKSOW. 

where  the  wind  and  sun  had  dispersed  the  snow 
from  the  sides  of  the  hills,  and  these  were  to 
form  resting  places  to  support  the  animals  for 
a  night  in  their  passage  across.  On  our  way 
across,  we  had  set  on  fire  several  broken  stumps 
and  dried  trees,  to  melt  holes  in  the  snow  for 
the  camp.  Its  general  depth  was  five  feet ;  but 
we  passed  over  places  where  it  was  twenty  feet 
deep,  as  shown  by  the  trees. 

"  With  one  party  drawing  sleighs  loaded 
with  baggage,  I  advanced  to-day  about  four 
miles  along  the  trail,  and  encamped  at  the  first 
grassy  spot,  where  we  expected  to  bring  our 
horses.  Mr.  Fitzpatrick,  with  another  party, 
remained  behind,  to  form  an  intermediate  sta- 
tion between  us  and  the  animals. 

"  Putting  on  our  snow-shoes,  we  spent  the 
afternoon  in  exploring  a  road  ahead.  The 
glare  of  the  snow,  combined  with  great  fatigue, 
had  rendered  many  of  the  people  nearly  blind ; 
but  we  were  fortunate  in  having  some  black 
silk  handkerchiefs,  which,  worn  as  veils,  very 
much  relieved  the  eye. 

"  In  the  evening  I  received  a  message  from 
Mr,  Fitzpatrick,  acquainting  me  with  the  utter 
failure  of  his  attempt  to  get  our  mules  and 
horses  over  the  snow — the  half-hidden  trail 
had  proved  entirely  too  slight  to  support 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX.  233 

lliem,  and  they  had  broken  through,  and  were 
plunging  about  or  lying  half  buried  in  snow. 
He  was  occupied  in  endeavoring  to  get  them 
back  to  his  camp  ;  and  in  the  mean  time  sent 
to  me  for  further  instructions.  I  wrote  to  him 
to  send  the  animals  immediately  back  to  their 
old  pastures ;  and,  after  having  made  mauls 
and  shovels,  turn  in  all  the  strength  of  his 
party  to  open  and  beat  a  road  through  the 
snow,  strengthening  it  with  branches  and 
boughs  of  the  pines. 

"February  12. — We  made  mauls,  and  worked 
hard  at  our  end  of  the  road  all  the  day.  The 
wind  was  high,  but  the  sun  bright,  and  the 
snow  thawing.  We  worked  down  the  face  of 
the  hill,  to  meet  the  people  at  the  other  end. 
Towards  sundown  it  began  to  grow  cold,  and 
we  shouldered  our  mauls,  and  trudged  back 
to  camp. 

"February  13. — We  continued  to  labor  on 
the  road ;  and  in  the  course  of  the  day  had  the 
satisfaction  to  see  the  people  working  down  the 
face  of  the  opposite  hill,  about  three  miles  dis- 
tant. During  the  morning  we  had  the  plea- 
sure of  a  visit  from  Mr.  Fitzpatrick,  with  the 
information  that  all  was  going  on  well.  A 
party  of  Indians  had  passed  on  snow-shoes, 
who  said  they  were  going  to  the  western  side 


234          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX. 

of  the  mountain  after  fish.  This  was  an  indi- 
cation that  the  salmon  were  coming  up  the 
streams ;  and  we  could  hardly  restrain  our  im- 
patience as  we  thought  of  them,  and  worked 
with  increased  vigor. 

"  I  was  now  perfectly  satisfied  that  we  had 
struck  the  stream  on  which  Mr.  Sutter  lived, 
and  turning  about,  made  a  hard  push,  and 
reached  the  camp  at  dark.  Here  we  had  the 
pleasure  to  find  all  the  remaining  animals, 
57  in  number,  safely  arrived  at  the  grassy 
hill  near  the  camp ;  and  here,  also,  we  were 
agreeably  surprised  with  the  .sight  of  an 
abundance  of  salt.  Some  of  the  horse  guard 
had  gone  to  a  neighboring  hut  for  pine  nuts, 
and  discovered  unexpectedly  a  large  cake  of 
very  white  fine-grained  salt,  which  the  In 
dians  told  them  they  had  brought  from  the 
other  side  of  the  mountain ;  they  used  it  to 
eat  with  their  pine  nuts,  and  readily  sold  it 
for  goods. 

"  On  the  19th,  the  people  were  occupied  in 
making  a  road  and  bringing  up  the  baggage  ; 
and,  on  the  afternoon  of  the  next  day,  Febru* 
ary  20,  1844,  we  encamped  with  the  animals 
and  all  the  materiel  of  the  camp,  on  the  sum- 
mit of  the  PASS  in  the  dividing  ridge,  3,000 


LIFE   OF   CTIRISTOriTER    CALSOtf.          235 

miles  by  our  traveled  road  from  the  Dalles  of 
the  Columbia. 

"  February  21. — We  now  considered  our- 
selves victorious  over  the  mountain;  having 
only  the  descent  before  us,  and  the  valley 
under  our  eyes,  we  felt  strong  hope  that  we 
should  force  our  way  down.  But  this  was  a 
case  in  which  the  descent  was  not  facile. 
Still,  deep  fields  of  snow  lay  between,  and 
there  was  a  large  intervening  space  of  rough- 
looking  mountains,  through  which  we  had 
yet  to  wind  our  way.  Carson  roused  me  this 
morning  with  an  early  fire,  and  we  were  all 
up  long  before  day,  in  order  to  pass  the 
snow  fields  before  the  sun  should  render  the 
crust  soft.  We  enjoyed  this  morning  a  scene 
at  sunrise,  which,  even  here,  was  unusually 
glorious  and  beautiful.  Immediately  above 
the  eastern  mountains  was  repeated  a  cloud- 
formed  mass  of  purple  ranges,  bordered  with 
bright  yellow  gold ;  the  peaks  shot  up  into  a 
narrow  line  of  crimson  cloud,  above  which 
the  air  was  filled  with  a  greenish  orancre ; 
and  over  all  was  the  singular  beauty  of  the 
blue  sky.  Passing  along  a  ridge  which 
commanded  the  lake  on  our  right,  of  which 
we  began  to  discover  an  outlet  through  a 
chasm  on  the  west,  we  passed  over  alternat- 


236          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

ing  open  ground  and  hard- crusted  snow-fields 
which  supported  the  animals,  and  encamped 
on  the  ridge  after  a  journey  of  six  miles. 
The  grass  was  better  than  we  had  yet  seen, 
and  we  were  encamped  in  a  clump  of  trees, 
twenty  or  thirty  feet  high,  resembling  white 
pine. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

"  WE  had  hard  and  doubtful  labor  yet  before 
us,  as  the  snow  appeared  to  be  heavier  where 
the  timber  began  further  down,  with  few  open 
spots.  Ascending  a  height,  we  traced  out  the 
best  line  we  could  discover  for  the  next  day's 
march,  and  had  at  least  the  consolation  to  see 
that  the  mountain  descended  rapidly.  The 
day  had  been  one  of  April ;  gusty,  with  a  few 
occasional  flakes  of  snow ;  which,  in  the  af- 
ternoon, enveloped  the  upper  mountains  in 
clouds.  We  watched  them  anxiously,  as  now 
we  dreaded  a  snow  storm.  Shortly  afterwards 
we  heard  the  roll  of  thunder,  and  looking 
toward  the  valley,  found  it  all  enveloped  in  a 
thunder-storm.  For  us,  as  connected  with  the 
idea  of  summer,  it  had  a  singular  charm ;  and 
we  watched  its  progress  with  excited  feelings 
until  nearly  sunset,  when  the  sky  cleared  off 
brightly,  and  we  saw  a  shining  line  of  water 

directing  its  course  towards  another,  a  broader 

(237) 


238  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

and  larger  sheet.  We  knew  that  these  could 
be  no  other  than  the  Sacramento  and  the  bay 
of  San  Francisco ;  but,  after  our  long  wander- 
ing in  rugged  mountains,  where  so  frequently 
we  had  met  with  disappointments,  and  where 
the  crossing  of  every  ridge  displayed  ^Dine 
unknown  lake  or  river,  we  were  yet  almost 
afraid  to  believe  that  we  were  at  last  to  escape 
mto  the  genial  country  of  which  we  have  heard 
so  many  glowing  descriptions,  and  dreaded 
again  to  find  some  vast  interior  lake,  whose 
bitter  waters  would  bring  us  disappointment. 
On  the  southern  shore  of  what  appeared  to  be 
the  bay,  could  be  traced  the  gleaming  line 
where  entered  another  large  stream;  and  again 
the  Buenaventura  rose  up  in  our  mind. 

"  Carson  had  entered  the  valley  along  the 
southern  side  of  the  bay,  but  the  country  then 
was  so  entirely  covered  with  water  from  snow 
and  rain,  that  he  had  been  able  to  form  no 
correct  impression  of  watercourses. 

"  We  had  the  satisfaction  to  know  that  at 
least  there  were  people  below.  Fires  were  lit 
up  in  the  valley  just  at  night,  appearing  to  be 
in  answer  to  ours ;  and  these  signs  of  life  re- 
newed, in  some  measure,  the  gayety  of  tho 
camp.  They  appeared  so  near,  .that  we  judged 
them  to  be  among  the  timber  of  some  of  the 


MOCGAFIN  GLANCED  FROM  TIIK  irv  HOCK,  AND  PRECIPITATKD 

ME  INTO   THE  RIVER." 


LIFE   OF   ettiUSTOPHER   CARSON  239 

ncigli boring  ridges;  but,  having  them  con- 
stantly in  view  day  after  day,  and  night  after 
night,  we  afterwards  found  them  to  be  fires  that 
had  been  kindled  by  the  Indians  among  tht> 
tulares,  on  the  shore  of  the  bay,  eighty  miles 
distant. 

"  Axes  and  mauls  were  necessary  to-day  to 
make  a  road  through  the  snow.  Going  ahead 
with  Carson  to  reconnoitre  the  road,  we  reached 
in  the  afternoon  the  river  which  made  the 
outlet  of  the  lake.  Carson  sprang  over,  clear 
across  a  place  where  the  stream  was  com- 
pressed among  rocks,  but  the  parfleche  sole  of 
my  moccasin  glanced  from  the  icy  rock,  and 
precipitated  me  into  the  river.  It  was  some 
few  seconds  before  I  could  recover  myself  in 
the  current,  and  Carson,  thinking  me  hurt, 
jumped  in  after  me,  and  we  both  had  an  icy 
bath.  We  tried  to  search  a  while  for  my  gun, 
which  had  been  lost  in  the  fall,  but  the  cold 
drove  us  out ;  and  making  a  large  fire  on  the 
bank,  after  we  had  partially  dried  ourselves 
we  went  back  to  meet  the  camp.  We  after- 
wards found  that  the  gun  had  been  slung 
under  the  ice  which  lined  the  banks  of  the 
creek. 

"The  sky  was  clear  and  pure,  with  a  sharp 


24C  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX. 

wind  from  the  northeast,  and  the  thermometer 
2°  below  the  freezing  point. 

"  We  continued  down  the  south  face  of  the 
mountain  ;  our  road  leading  over  dry  ground, 
we  were  able  to  avoid  the  snow  almost  entirely. 
In  the  course  of  the  morning,  we  struck  a  foot 
path,  which  we  were  generally  able  to  keep ; 
and  the  ground  was  soft  to  our  animal's  feet, 
being  sandy  or  covered  with,  mould.  Green 
grass  began  to  make  its  appearance,  and  occa- 
sionally we  passed  a  hill  scatteringly  covered 
with  it.  The  character  of  the  forest  continued 
the  same ;  and,  among  the  trees,  the  pine  with 
sharp  leaves  and  very  large  cones  was  abund- 
ant, some  of  them  being  noble  trees.  We 
measured  one  that  had  ten  feet  diameter, 
though  the  height  was  not  more  than  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty  feet.  All  along,  the  river  was 
a  roaring  torrent,  its  fall  very  great;  and,  de- 
scending with  a  rapidity  to  which  we  had  long- 
been  strangers,  to  our  great  pleasure  oak  trees 
appeared  on  the  ridge,  and  soon  became  very 
frequent ;  on  these  I  remarked  unusually  great 
quantities  of  misletoe. 

u  The  opposite  mountain  side  was  very  steep 
and  continuous — unbroken  by  ravines,  and 
covered  with  pines  and  snow;  while  on  the 
side  we  were  traveling,  innumerable  rivulets 


LIFE   OF   CHIUSTOrilKU   CARSCN.  241 

poured  down  from  the  ridge.  Continuing  on, 
\ve  halted  a  moment  at  one  of  these  rivulets, 
to  admire  some  beautiful  evergreen  trees,  re- 
sembling live  oak,  which  shaded  the  little 
stream.  They  were  forty  to  fifty  feet  high, 
and  two  in  diameter,  with  a  uniform  tufted 
top ;  and  the  summer  green  of  their  beautiful 
foliage,  with  the  singing  birds,  and  the  sweet 
summer  wind  which  was  whirling  about  the 
dry  oak  leaves,  nearly  intoxicated  us  with  de- 
light ;  and  we  hurried  on,  filled  with  excite- 
ment, to  escape  entirely  from  the  horrid  region 
of  inhospitable  snow,  to  the  perpetual  spring 
of  the  Sacramento. 

"  "February  25. — Believing  that  the  difficul- 
ties of  the  road  were  passed,  and  leaving  Mr. 
Fitzpatrick  to  follow  slowly,  as  the  condition 
of  the  animals  required,  I  started  ahead  this 
morning  with  a  party  of  eight,  consisting  (with 
myself)  of  Mr.  Preuss,  and  Mr.  Talbot,  Car- 
son, Derosier,  Towns,  Proue,  and  Jacob.  AVc 
took  with  us  some  of  the  best  animals,  and  my 
intention  was  to  proceed  as  rapidly  as  possible 
to  the  house  of  Mr.  Sutter,  and  return  to  meet 
the  party  with  a  supply  of  provisions  and 
fresh  animals. 

"Near  night-fall  we  descended  into  tlie 
steep  ravine  of  a  handsome  creek  thirty  foot 

16 


242  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

wide,  and  I  was  engaged  in  getting  the  horsea 
up  the  opposite  hill,  when  I  heard  a  shout 
from  Carson,  who  had  gone  ahead  a  few  hun- 
dred yards — '  Life  yet,'  said  he,  as  he  came  up, 
4  life  yet;  I  have  found  a  hill  side  sprinkled 
with  grass  enough  for  the  night?  AVe  drove 
along  our  horses,  and  encamped  at  the  place 
about  dark,  and  there  was  just  room  enough  to 
make  a  place  for  shelter  on  the  edge  of  the 
stream.  Three  horses  were  lost  to-day — Pro 
veau ;  a  fine  young  horse  from  the  Columbia, 
belonging  to  Charles  Towns ;  and  another  In- 
dian horse  which  carried  our  cooking  utensils ; 
the  two  former  gave  out,  and  the  latter  strayed 
off  into  the  woods  as  we  reached  the  camp  : 
and  Derosier,  knowing  my  attachment  to  Pro- 
veau,  volunteered  to  go  and  bring  him  in. 

"  Carson  and  I  climbed  one  of  the  nearest 
mountains ;  the  forest  land  still  extended 
ahead,  and  the  valley  appeared  as  far  as  ever. 
The  pack  horse  wab  found  near  the  camp,  but 
Derosier  did  not  get  in. 

"  We  began  to  be  uneasy  at  Derosier's  ab- 
sence, fearing  he  might  have  been  bewildered  in 
the  woods.  Charles  Towns,  who  had  not  yet  re- 
covered his  mind,  went  to  swim  in  the  river, 
as  if  it  was  summer,  and  the  stream  placid, 
when  it  was  a  cold  mountain  torrent  foaming 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  243 

among  the  rocks.  We  were  happy  to  sec  DC- 
rosier  appear  in  the  evening.  He  came  in, 
and  sitting  down  by  the  fire,  began  to  tell  us 
where  he  had  been.  He  imagined  lie  had 
been  gone  several  days,  and  thought  we  were 
still  at  the  camp  where  he  had  left  us ;  and  we 
were  pained  to  see  that  his  mind  was  deranged. 
It  appeared  that  he  had  been  lost  in  the  moun- 
tain, and  hunger  and  fatigue,  joined  to  weak- 
ness of  body,  and  fear  of  perishing  in  the 
mountains  had  crazed  him.  The  times  were 
severe  when  stout  men  lost  their  minds  from 
extremity  of  suffering — when  horses  died — and 
when  mules  and  horses,  ready  to  die  of  star\  a- 
tion,  were  killed  for  food.  Yet  there  was  no 
murmuring  or  hesitation.  In  the  mean  time 
Mr.  Preuss  continued  on  down  the  river,  and 
unaware  that  we  had  encamped  so  early  in  the 
day,  was  lost.  When  night  arrived  and  ho 
did  not  come  in,  we  began  to  understand  what 
had  happened  to  him ;  but  it  was  too  late  to 
make  any  search. 

"  March  ;3. — We  followed  Mr.  Preuss's  trail 
for  a  considerable  distance  along  the  river, 
until  we  reached  a  place  where  he  had  de- 
scended to  the  stream  below  and  encamped. 
Here  we  shouted  and  tired  guns,  but  received 
no  answer;  and  we  concluded  that  he  had 


244          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARS01ST. 

pushed  on  down  the  stream.  I  determined  to 
keep  out  from  the  river,  along  which  it  was 
nearly  impracticable  to  travel  with  animals, 
until  it  should  form  a  valley.  At  every  step 
the  country  improved  in  beauty ;  the  pines 
were  rapidly  disappearing,  and  oaks  became 
the  principal  trees  of  the  forest.  Among 
these,  the  prevailing  tree  was  the  evergreen 
oak  (which,  by  way  of  distinction,  we  shall  call 
the  live  oak};  and  with  these,  occurred  fre- 
quently a  new  species  of  oak,  bearing  a  long, 
slender  acorn,  from  an  inch  to  an  inch  and  a 
half  in  length,  which  we  now  began  to  see 
formed  the  principal  vegetable  food  of  the 
inhabitants  of  this  region.  In  a  short  distance 
we  crossed  a  little  rivulet,  where  were  two  old 
huts,  and  near  by  were  heaps  of  acorn  hulls. 
The  ground  round  about  was  very  rich,  co- 
vered with  an  exuberant  sward  of  grass ;  and 
we  sat  down  for  a  while  in  the  shade  of  the 
oaks,  to  let  the  animals  feed.  We  repeated 
our  shouts  for  Mr.  Preuss ;  and  this  time  wo 
were  gratified  with  an  answer.  The  voice 
grew  rapidly  nearer,  ascending  from  the  river, 
but  when  we  expected  to  see  him  emerge,  it 
ceased  entirely.  We  had  called  up  some  strag- 
gling Indian — the  first  we  had  met,  although 
for  two  days  back  we  had  seen  tracks — who, 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSO5  245 

mistaking  us  for  his  fellows,  had  been  only 
undeceived  by  getting  close  up.  It  would 
have  been  pleasant  to  witness  his  astonish- 
ment;  he  would  not  have  been  more  fright- 
ened had  some  of  the  old  mountain  spirits  they 
are  so  much  afraid  of  suddenly  appeared  in 
his  path.  Ignorant  of  the  character  of  these 
people,  we  had  now  additional  cause  of  uneasi- 
ness in  regard  to  Mr.  Preuss ;  he  had  no  arms 
with  him,  and  we  began  to  think  his  chance 
doubtful.  Occasionally  we  met  deer,  but  had 
not  the  necessary  time  for  hunting.  At  ono 
of  these  orchard  grounds,  we  encamped  about 
noon  to  make  an  effort  for  Mr.  Preuss.  One 
man  took  his  way  along  a  spur  leading  into 
the  river,  in  hope  to  cross  his  trail ;  and  ano- 
ther took  our  own  back.  Both  were  volun- 
teers ;  and  to  the  successful  man  was  promised 
a  pair  of  pistols — not  as  a  reward,  but  as  a 
token  of  gratitude  for  a  service  which  would 
free  us  all  from  much  anxiety." 

It  was  not  until  the  6th,  and  after  a  continu- 
ation of  the  most  incredible  sufferings,  already 
narrated,  that  the  party  reached  Slitter's  Fort, 
where,  it  is  needless  to  say,  they  were  warmly 
and  cordially  received  by  that  gentleman.—  and 
to  close  this  stirring  narrative,  we  will  only 
add  as  an  evidence  of  the  terrible  sufferings  to 


246  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

which  they  had  been  subjected,  that  out  of 
sixty-seven  horses  and  mules  with  which  the 
expedition  was  commenced,  only  thirty-three 
reached  the  valley  of  the  Sacramento,  and  they 
had  to  be  led.  In  quoting  above  from  Fre- 
mont's narrative,  a  continuous  record  has  not 
been  kept,  as  we  have  used  only  such  portions 
as  contain  the  narrative  of  incidents  directly 
connected  with  the  expedition,  and  of  which, 
though  scarcely  mentioned  throughout,  save  in 
the  most  incidental  manner,  Carson  might  well 
say,  and  with  pride,  magna  pars  fid. 

In  the  course  of  this  narrative  we  have  fre- 
quently used  the  word  cache,  and  a  brief  inter- 
pretation of  its  meaning,  we  are  sure  will  not 
be  uninteresting  to  the  uninitiated. 

A  cache  is  a  term  common  among  traders 
and  hunters,  to  designate  a  hiding  place  for 
provisions  and  effects.  It  is  derived  from  the 
French  word  cacher,  to  conceal,  and  originated 
among  the  early  colonists  'of  Canada  and 
Louisiana ;  but  the  secret  depository  which  it 
designates  was  in  use  among  the  aboriginals 
long  before  the  intrusion  of  the  white  men.  It 
is,,  in  fact,  the  only  mode  that  migratory  hordes 
have  of  preserving  their  valuables  from  rob- 
bery, during  their  long  absences  from  their 
villages  or  accustomed  haunts  on  hunting  ex- 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON".  247 

pcditions,  or  during  the  vicissitudes  of  war. 
The  utmost  skill  and  caution  are  required  to 
render  these  places  of  concealment  invisible  to 
the  lynx  eye  of  an  Indian. 

The  first  care  is  to  seek  out  a  proper  situ- 
ation, which  is  generally  some  dry  low  bank 
of  clay,  on  the  margin  of  a  water  course.  As 
soon  as  the  precise  spot  is  pitched  upon,  blan- 
kets, saddle-cloths,  and  other  coverings  are 
spread  over  the  surrounding  grass  and  bushes, 
to  prevent  foot  tracks,  or  any  other  derange- 
ment ;  and  as  few  hands  as  possible  are  em- 
ployed. A  circle  of  about  two  feet  in  diameter 
is  then  nicely  cut  in  the  sod,  which  is  care- 
fully removed,  with  the  loose  soil  immediately 
beneath  it,  and  laid  aside  in  a  place  where  it 
will  be  safe  from  any  thing  that  may  change 
its  appearance.  The  uncovered  area  is  then 
digged  perpendicularly  to  the  depth  of  about 
three  feet,  and  is  then  gradually  widened  so  as 
to  form  a  conical  chamber  six  or  seven  feet 
deep. 

The  whole  of  the  earth  displaced  by  this 
process,  being  of  a  different  color  from  that  on 
the  surface,  is  handed  up  in  a  vessel,  and 
heaped  into  a  skin  or  cloth,  in  which  it  is  con- 
veyed to  the  stream  and  thrown  into  the  midst 
of  the  current,  that  it  may  be  entirely  carried 


248          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CAKSOW. 

off.  Should  the  cache  not  be  formed  in  the 
vicinity  of  a  stream,  the  earth  thus  thrown  up 
is  carried  to  a  distance,  and  scattered  in  such 
a  manner  as  not  to  leave  the  minutest  trace, 
The  cave  being  formed,  is  well  lined  \tith  dry 
grass,  bark,  sticks,  and  poles,  and  occasionally 
a  dried  hide.  The  property  intended  to  be 
hidden  is  then  laid  in,  after  having  been  well 
aired :  a  hide  is  spread  over  it,  and  dried  grass, 
brush,  and  stones  thrown  in,  and  trampled 
down  until  the  pit  is  filled  to  the  neck.  The 
loose  soil  which  had  been  put  aside  is  then 
brought,  and  rammed  down  firmly,  to  prevent 
its  caving  in,  and  is  frequently  sprinkled  with 
water  to  destroy  the  scent,  lest  the  wolves  and 
bears  should  be  attracted  to  the  place,  and 
root  up  the  concealed  treasure. 

When  the  neck  of  the  cache  is  nearly  level 
with  the  surrounding  surface,  the  sod  is  again 
fitted  in  with  the  utmost  exactness,  and  any 
bushes,  stocks,  or  stones,  that  may  have  origin- 
ally been  about  the  spot,  are  restored  to  theii 
former  places.  The  blankets  and  other  cover- 
ings are  then  removed  from  the  surrounding 
herbage:  all  tracks  are  obliterated:  the  grass 
is  gently  raised  by  the  hand  to  its  natural  posi- 
tion, and  the  minutest  chip  or  straw  is  scrupu- 
lously gleaned  up  and  thrown  into  the  stream, 


1IFE    OF   CKHRISTOPHER    CARSON.         249 

After  all  is  done,  the  place  is  abandoned  for 
die  night,  and,  if  all  be  right  next  morning,  is 
not  visited  again,  until  there  be  a  necessity  for 
reopening  the  cache.  Four  men  aie  sufficient 
in  this  way,  to  conceal  the  amount  of  three 
tons  weight  of  merchandize  in  the  course  of 
days, 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

CARSON  had  passed  the  autumn  and  winter 
with  his  family,  in  the  society  of  old  compan- 
ions, amid  various  incidents  amusing  to  the 
reader  if  they  were  detailed,  because  so  unlike 
the  style  of  life  to  which  he  has  been  accus- 
tomed, the  particulars  of  which  we  must  how- 
ever leave  to  his  imagination,  aiding  it  by 
some  general  description  of  the  customs  of  the 
country  and  locality. 

The  town  of  Taos  is  the  second  in  size  in 
New  Mexico,  (Santa  Fe  claiming  of  right  to  be 
first,)  with  very  little  regard  to  beauty  in  its 
construction,  the  houses  being  huddled  upon 
narrow  streets,  except  in  the  immediate  vicinity 
of  the  plaza,  on  which  are  located  the  church 
and  the  better  class  of  houses ;  and  where,  as 
in  all  Mexican  towns,  the  marketing  is  carried 
on.  It  is  situated  in  the  centre  of  the  valley 
of  Taos,  which  is  about  thirty  miles  long,  and 

fifteen  broad,  and  surrounded  by  mountains, 
C250) 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  25] 

upon  whose  tops  snow  lies  during  the  greater 
part  of  the  year. 

The  valley  appears  to  be  a  plain,  but  is  in- 
tersected by  many  ravines,  which  flow  into  the 
Rio  Grande  on  its  western  side.  There  is  no 
timber,  but  in  the  mountains  it  is  abundant, 
and  of  excellent  quality.  The  population  in 
the  whole  valley  numbers  scarcely  more  than 
ten  thousand,  and  as  their  farming  operations 
require  but  a  portion  of  the  soil,  the  larger 
part  of  the  land  is  still  wild,  and  grazed  only 
by  horses,  cattle,  and  sheep,  which  are  raised 
in  large  numbers. 

They  are  obliged  to  expend  much  labor  upon 
their  crops,  as  the  climate  is  too  dry  to  mature 
them  without  irrigation  ;  and  yet  in  their  com- 
munity of  interest,  in  a  country  without  fences, 
they  find  much  satisfaction  in  rendering  kind 
offices  to  each  other ;  and  social  life  is  more  cul- 
tivated than  in  communities  whose  interests 
are  more  separate.  The  high  altitude,  and 
dryness  of  the  atmosphere,  render  the  climate 
exceedingly  healthful,  rather  severe  in  winter, 
but  very  mild  and  salubrious  in  summer,  so 
that  disease  is  scarcely  known  in  the  valley. 

The  dress  of  the  people  has  changed  very 
much  since  the  population  became  partially 
Americanized,  so  that  often  the  buckskin 


252  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

pants  have  given  place  to  cloth,  and  the  blan- 
ket to  the  coat,  aucl  the  moccasin  to  the 
leathern  shoe,  and  the  dress  of  the  women  has 
undergone  as  great  a  change.  They  are  learn- 
ing to  employ  American  implements  for  agri- 
culture, instead  of  the  rude  Egyptian  yoke  fas* 
tened  to  the  horns  of  the  oxen  ;  and  the  plough 
composed  of  a  single  hooked  piece  of  timber, 
and  the  axe  that  more  resembles  a  pick,  than 
the  axe  of  the  American  woodsman  ;  and  the 
cart,  whose  wheels  are  pieces  sawed  from  the 
butt  end  of  a  log,  with  a  hole  bored  for  the 
axle,  whose  squeaking  can  be  heard  for  miles, 
and  which  are  themselves  a  sufficient  burden 
without  any  loading.  Their  diet  is  simple,  as 
it  is  with  all  Mexicans,  consisting  of  the  pro- 
ducts of  the  locality,  with  game,  which  is  al- 
ways to  be  included  in  a  bill  of  fare  such  as  Car- 
son would  furnish  ;  corn,  and  wheat,  and  peas, 
beans,  eggs,  pumpkins,  and  apples,  pears, 
peaches,  plums,  and  grapes,  constitute  the 
principal  products  of  their  culture.  Their 
great  source  of  enjoyment  is  dancing,  and  the 
fandango  is  so  much  an  institution  in  a  town 
of  the  size  of  Taos,  that,  during  the  win- 
ter, scarcely  a  night  passes  without  a  dance. 
This  is  doubtless  familiar  to  the  reader,  as  the 
acquisition  of  California  has  introduced  a 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  253 

knowledge  of  the  customs  of  its  natives  to 
every  eastern  household. 

In  the  spring  of  1845,  Carson  had  decided 
to  commence  the  business  of  farming  at  Taos, 
and  had  made  the  necessary  arrangements  for 
building  a  house,  and  for  stocking  and  plant- 
ing, when  an  express  arrived  from  Col.  Fre- 
mont, bringing  despatches  to  remind  him  of 
his  promise  to  join  a  third  exploring  expedi- 
tion, in  case  he  should  ever  undertake  another, 
and  to  designate  the  place  where  he  would 
meet  the  party  Fremont  was  organising. 

Before  parting  with  Fremont  in  the  previous 
summer,  Fremont  had  secured  the  promise 
from  Carson,  that  he  would  again  be  his  guide 
and  companion,  should  he  ever  undertake 
another  expedition  ;  but  Carson  was  not  ex- 
pecting its  execution  at  this  time,  and  yet, 
though  it  would  entail  severe  loss  on  him  to 
make  a  hasty  sale  of  his  possessions,  and  ar- 
range for  leaving  his  family,  he  felt  bound  by 
his  promise,  as  well  as  by  his  attachment  to 
Fremont,  and  at  once  closing  up  his  business, 
together  with  an  old  friend  by  the  name  of 
Owens,  who  had  become,  as  it  were,  a  partner 
with  him  in  his  enterprise  of  farming,  they 
having  been  old  trapping  friends,  they  re- 
paired together  to  the  point  designated  for 


254  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CAllSOtf. 

joining  the  exploring  party,  upon  the  upper 
Ark  an  Seas,  at  Bent's  Fort,  where  they  had  last 
parted  from  Fremont. 

The  meeting  was  mutually  satisfactory,  and 
with  Fremont  were  Maxwell,  an  old  arid  well- 
tried  friend,  and  a  Mr.  Walker,  who  had  been 
in  Captain  Bonneville's  expedition  to  the 
Columbia,  and  in  other  trapping  parties  in 
California  and  vicinity,  so  that  with  other 
mountain  men,  whose  names  are  less  known, 
but  every  man  of  whom  wras  Carson's  friend, 
Fremont's  corps  was  more  efficient  for  the  pre- 
sent service,  than  it  had  been  in  either  of  the 
former  expeditions. 

After  some  months  spent  in  examining  the 
headwaters  of  the  great  rivers  which  flow  to 
either  ocean,  the  party  descended  at  the  begin- 
ning of  winter  to  the  Great  Salt  Lake,  and  in 
October  encamped  on  its  southwestern  shore,  in 
view  of  that  undescribed  country  which  at  that 
time  had  not  been  penetrated,  and  which  vague 
and  contradictory  reports  of  Indians  repre- 
sented as  a  desert  without  gross  or  water. 

Their  previous  visit  to  the  lake  had  given  it 
a  somewhat  familiar  aspect,  and  on  leaving  it 
they  felt  as  if  about  to  commence  tiieir  journey 
anew.  Its  eastern  shore  wras  frequented  by 
large  bands  of  Indians,  but  here  they 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CAESOX.  255 

dwindled  down  to  a  single  family,  which  was 
Cleaning  from  some  hidden  source,  enough  to 
support  life,  and  drinking  the  salt  water  of  a 
little  stream  near  by,  no  fresh  water  being 
at  hand.  This  offered  scanty  encouragement 
as  to  what  they  might  expect  on  the  desert 
beyond. 

At  its  threshold  and  immediately  before 
them  was  a  naked  plain  of  smooth  clay  surface, 
mostly  devoid  of  vegetation — the  hazy  weather 
of  the  summer  hung  over  it,  and  in  the  dis- 
tance rose  scattered,  low,  black  and  dry-looking 
mountains.  At  what  appeared  to  be  fifty  miles 
or  more,  a  higher  peak  held  out  some  promise 
of  wood  and  water,  and  towards  this  it  was  re- 
solved to  direct  their  course. 

Four  men,  with  a  pack  animal  loaded  with 
water  for  two  days,  and  accompanied  by  a 
naked  Indian — who  volunteered  for  a  reward 
to  be  their  guide  to  a  spot  where  he  said  then? 
was  grass  and  fine  springs — were  sent  forward 
to  explore  in  advance  for  a  foothold,  and  verity 
the  existence  of  water  before  the  whole  party 
should  be  launched  into  the  desert.  Their  way 
led  toward  the  high  peak  of  the  mountain,  on 
which  they  were  to  make  a  smoke  signal  in  the 
event  of  finding  water.  About  sunset  of  the 
second  day,  no  signal  having  been  seen,  Fremont 


256          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

became  uneasy  at  the  absence  of  his  men,  and 
set  out  with  the  whole  party  upon  their  trail, 
traveling  rapidly  all  the  night.  Towards 
morning  one  of  the  scouts -was  met  returning 

The  Indian  had  been  found  to  know  less 
than  themselves,  and  had  been  sent  back,  but 
the  men  had  pushed  on  to  the  mountains,  where 
they  found  a  running  stream,  with  wood  and 
sufficient  grass.  The  whole  party  no\t  lay 
down  to  rest,  and  the  next  day,  after  a  hard 
march,  reached  the  stream.  The  distance 
across  the  plain  was  nearly  seventy  miles,  and 
they  called  the  mountain  which  had  guided 
them  Pilot  Peak.  This  was  their  first  day's 
march  and  their  first  camp  in  the  desert. 

A  few  days  afterwards  the  expedition  was 
divided  into  two  parties — the  larger  one  under 
the  guidance  of  Walker,  a  well-known  moun- 
taineer and  experienced  traveler,  going  around 
to  the  foot  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  by  a  circuitous 
route  which  he  had  previously  traveled,  and 
Fremont,  with  ten  men,  Delawares  and  whites, 
penetrated  directly  through  the  heart  of  the 
desert. 

Some  days  after  this  separation,  Fremont's 
party,  led  by  Carson,  while  traveling  along  the 
foot  of  a  mountain,  the  arid  country  covered 
with  dwarf  shrubs,  discovered  a  volume  of 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  257 

smoke  rising  from  a  ravine.  Hilling  cautiously 
up,  they  discovered  a  single  Indian  on  the 
border  of  a  small  creek.  He  was  standing 
before  a  little  fire,  naked  as  he  was  born,  ap- 
parently thinking,  and  looking  at  a  small 
earthen  pot  which  was  simmering  over  the  fire, 
filled  with  the  common  ground-squirrel  of  the 
country.  Another  bunch  of  squirrels  lay  near 
t,  and  close  by  were  his  bow  and  arrows.  Ho 
was  a  well-made,  good-looking  young  man, 
about  twenty-five  years  of  age.  Although  so 
taken  by  surprise  that  he  made  no  attempt  to 
es.-ape,  and  evidently  greatly  alarmed,  he  re- 
ceived his  visitors  with  forced  gaiety,  and 
offered  them  part  of  his  pot  au  feu  and  his 
bunch  of  squirrels.  He  was  kindly  treated 
and  some  little  presents  made  him,  and  the 
party  continued  their  way. 

His  bow  was  handsomely  made,  and  the  ar- 
rows, of  which  there  were  about  forty  in  his 
quiver,  were  neatly  feathered,  and  headed  with 
obsidian,  worked  into  spear-shape  by  patient 
hbor. 

After  they  had  separated,  Fremont  found 
that  his  Delawares  had  taken  a  fancy  to  tho 
Indian's  bow  and  arrows,  and  carried  them  off. 
'1  hey  carried  them  willingly  hack,  when  they 
\\ere  reminded  that  they  had  exposed  the  poor 


258          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER    CARSON. 

fellow  to  almost  certain  starvation  by  depriving 
him,  in  the  beginning  of  winter,  of  his  only 
means  of  subsistence,  which  it  would  require 
months  to  replace. 

One  day  the  party  had  reached  one  of  the 
idkes  lying  along  the  foot  of  the  Sierra  Nevada, 
which  was  their  appointed  rendezvous  with 
their  friends,  and  where,  at  this  season,  tho 
scattered  Indians  of  the  neighborhood  wero 
gathering,  to  fish.  Turning  a  point  on  the  lake 
shore,  a  party  of  Indians,  some  twelve  or  four- 
teen in  number,  came  abruptly  in  view.  They 
were  advancing  along  in  Indian  file,  one  fol- 
lowing the  other,  their  heads  bent  forward,  with 
eyes  fixed  on  the  ground.  As  the  two  parties 
met,  the  Indians  did  not  turn  their  heads  or 
raise  their  eyes  from  the  ground,  but  passed 
silently  along.  The  whites,  habituated  to  the 
chances  of  savage  life,  and  always  uncertain 
whether  they  should  find  friends  or  foes  in 
those  they  met,  fell  readily  into  their  humor, 
and  they  too  passed  on  their  way  without  word 
or  halt. 

It  was  a  strange  meeting:  two  parties  of 
such  different  races  and  different  countries, 
coming  abruptly  upon  each  other,  with  every 
occasion  to  excite  curiosity  and  provoke  ques- 
tion, pass  in  a  desert  without  a  word  of  inquiry 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.          259 

or  a  single  remark  on  either  side,  or  without 
any  show  of  hostility. 

'Walker's  party  joined  Fremont  at  the 
appointed  rendezvous,  at  the  point  where 
Walker's  river  discharges  itself  into  the  lake, 
but  it  was  now  mid- winter,  they  were  out  of 
provisions — and  there  was  no  guide.  The 
hecivy  snows  might  be  daily  expected  to  block 
up  the  passes  in  the  great  Sierra,  if  they  had 
not  already  fallen,  and  with  all  their  experience 
it  was  considered  too  hazardous  to  attempt  the 
passage  with  the  materiel  of  a  whole  party ;  it 
was  arranged  therefore  that  Walker  should 
continue  with  the  main  party  southward  along 
the  Sierra,  and  enter  the  valley  of  the  San 
Joaquin  by  some  one  of  the  low  passes  at  its 
head,  where  there  is  rarely  or  never  snow. 
Fremont  undertook,  with  a  few  men,  to  cross 
directly  westward  over  the  Sierra  Nevada  to 
Slitter's  Fort,  with  the  view  of  obtaining  there 
the  necessary  supplies  of  horses  and  beef  cattle 
with  which  to  rejoin  his  party. 

After  some  days'  travel,  leaving  the  Mercedes 
River,  they  had  entered  among  the  foothills  of 
the  mountains,  and  were  journeying  through 
a  beautiful  country  of.  undulating  upland, 
openly  timbered  with  oaks,  principally  ever 
green,  ard  watered  with  small  streams. 


2GO          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

Traveling  along,  they  came  suddenly  upon 
broad  and  deeply-worn  trails,  which  had  been 
freshly  traveled  by  large  bands  of  horses,  ap- 
parently coming  from  the  settlements  on  tho 
coast.  These  and  other  indications  warned 
(hem  that  they  were  approaching  villages  of  tho 
Horse-Thief  Indians,  who  appeared  to  have 
just  returned  from  a  successful  foray.  With 
the  breaking  up  of  the  missions,  many  of  the 
Indians  had  returned  to  their  tribes  in  tho 
mountains.  Their  knowledge  of  the  Spanish 
language,  and  familiarity  with  the  ranches  and 
towns,  enabled  them  to  pass  and  repass,  at 
pleasure,  between  their  villages  in  the  Sierra 
and  the  ranches  on  the  coast.  They  very  soon 
availed  themselves  of  these  facilities  to  steal 
and  run  off  into  the  mountains  bands  of  horses, 
and  in  a  short  time  it  became  the  occupation 
of  all  the  Indians  inhabiting  the  southern 
Sierra  Nevada,  as  well  as  the  plains  beyond. 

Three  or  four  parties  would  be  sent  at  a  time 
from  different  villages,  and  every  week  was 
signalized  by  the  carrying-off  of  hundreds  of 
horses,  to  be  killed  and  eaten  in  the  interior. 
Repeated  expeditions  had  been  made  against 
them  by  the  Californians,  who  rarely  succeeded 
in  reaching  the  foot  of  the  mountains,  and  were 
invariably  defeated  when  they  did. 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOrilER   CARSON.          261 

As  soon  as  this  fresh  trail  had  been  discov- 
ered, four  men,  two  Delaware's  with  Maxwell 
and  Dick  Owens,  two  of  Fremont's  favorite 
men,  were  sent  forward  upon  the  trail.  Tho 
rest  of  the  party  had  followed  along  at  their 
usual  gait,  but  Indian  signs  became  so  thick, 
trail  after  trail  joining  on,  that  they  started 
rapidly  after  the  men,  fearing  for  their  safety. 
After  a  few  miles  ride,  they  reached  a  spot 
which  had  been  the  recent  camping  ground  of 
a  village,  and  where  abundant  grass  and  good 
water  suggested  a  halting  place  for  the  night, 
and  they  immediately  set  about  unpacking 
their  animals  and  preparing  to  encamp. 

While  thus  engaged,  they  heard  what  seemed 
to  be  the  barking  of  many  dogs,  coming  appa- 
rently from  a  village,  not  far  distant ;  but  they 
had  hardly  thrown  off  their  saddles  when  they 
suddenly  became  aware  that  it  was  the  noise 
of  women  and  children  shouting  and  crying; 
and  this  was  sufficient  notice  that  the  men  who 
had  been  sent  ahead  had  fallen  among  un- 
friendly Indians,  so  that  a  fight  had  already 
ci  inmenced. 

It  did  not  need  an  instant  to  throw  the  sad- 
dle on  again,  and  leaving  four  men  to  guard 
the  camp.  Fremont,  with  the  rest,  rode  off  in 
the  direction  of  the  sounds. 


262          LIFE   OF   CHEISTOPHER    CARSON. 

They  had  galloped  but  half  a  mile,  when 
crossing  a  little  ridge,  they  came  abruptly  in 
view  of  several  hundred  Indians  advancing  on 
each  side  of  a  knoll,  on  the  top  of  which  were 
the  men,  where  a  cluster  of  trees  and  rocks 
made  a  good  defence.  It  was  evident  that  they 
bad  come  suddenly  into  the  midst  of  the  Indian 
village,  and  jumping  from  their  horses,  with 
the  instinctive  skill  of  old  hunters  and  moun- 
taineers as  they  were,  had  got  into  an  admira- 
ble place  to  fight  from. 

The  Indians  had  nearly  surrounded  the 
knoll,  and  were  about  getting  possession  of  the 
horses,  as  Fremont's  party  came  in  view. 
Their  welcome  shout  as  they  charged  up  the 
hill,  was  answered  by  the  yell  of  the  Delawares 
as  they  dashed  down  to  recover  their  animals, 
and  the  crack  of  Owens'  and  Maxwell's  rifles. 
Owens  had  singled  out  the  foremost  Indian 
who  went  headlong  down  the  lull,  to  steal 
horses  no  more. 

Profiting  by  the  first  surprise  of  the  Indians, 
and  anxious  for  the  safety  of  the  men  who  had 
been  left  in  camp,  the  whites  immediately  re- 
treated  towards  it,  checking  the  Indians  with 
occasional  rifle  shots,  with  the  range  of  which 
it  seemed  remarkable  that  they  were  ac- 
quainted. 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  263 

The  whole  camp  were  on  guard  until  day- 
light. As  soon  as  it  was  dark,  each  man  crept 
to  his  post.  They  heard  the-women  and  child- 
ren retreating  towards  the  mountains,  but 
nothing  disturbed  the  quiet  of  the  camp,  except 
when  one  of  the  Delawares  shot  at  a  wolf  as  it 
jumped  over  a  log,  and  which  he  mistook  for 
an  Indian.  As  soon  as  it  grew  light  they  took 
to  the  most  open  ground,  and  retreated  into 
ihe  plain. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

THE  record  of  Fremont  and  Carson's  journey 
through  this  region  of  country,  already  so 
thoroughly  explored  at  such  great  hazard,  and 
accompanied  with  such  unheard-of  sufferings, 
would  be  but  a  repetition  of  what  has  already 
been  written,  for  they  were  again  driven  to 
mule  meat,  or  whatever  else  chance  or  Provi- 
dence might  throw  in  their  way,  to  sustain  life. 
In  every  need — in  every  peril — in  every  quar- 
ter where  coolness,  sagacity,  and  skill  were 
most  required,  Carson  was  ever  first,  and  his 
conduct  throughout  cemented,  if  possible,  more 
firmly  the  friendship  between  him  and  his 
young  commander. 

They  reached,  at  last,  Suiter's  Fort,  where 
they  were  received  with  the  hospitality  which 
has  made  Mr.  Sutter's  name  proverbial ;  and 
leaving  his  party  to  recruit  there,  Fremont 
pushed  on  towards  Monterey,  to  make  known 

to  the  authorities  there  the  condition  of  hia 
(264) 


LIFE   OF   CHIUSTOPIIETl    CARSON.  265 

party,  and  obtained  permission  to  recruit  and 
procure  the  supplies  necessary  for  the  prosecu- 
tion of  his  exploration. 

Journeying  in  the  security  of  this  permission, 
he  was  suddenly  arrested  in  his  march,  near 
Monterey,  by  an  officer  at  the  head  of  a  body 
of  cavalry,  who  bore  him  a  violent  message 
from  the  commanding  officer  in  California — 
Gen.  Castro — commanding  him  to  retire  in- 
stantly from  the  country. 

There  was  now  no  alternative  but  to  put 
himself  on  the  defensive,  as  he  had  come  to  the 
country  for  an  entirely  peaceable  purpose,  and 
it  was  not  in  the  blood  of  Americans  to  submit 
to  dictation.  The  direction  of  travel  was  there- 
fore changed  ;  a  strong  point  was  selected  and 
fortified  as  thoroughly  as  could  be  with  the 
means  at  their  command,  which  work  was 
hardly  completed  before  Gen.  Castro,  at  the 
IKMC!  of  several  hundred  men,  arrived  and  es- 
tablished his  camp  within  a  few  hundred  yards 
and  in  sight  of  the  exploring  party,  evidently 
under  the  mistaken  idea  that  he  could  intimi- 
date them  by  his  numbers. 

Though  the  Americans  were  but  forty  in 
number,  every  man  had  already  seen  service, 
and  the  half  score  of  old  traders  and  trappers, 
who  had  been  leaders  in  many  an  Indian  light, 


266  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

made  the  party,  small  as  it  was,  quite  equal  t«i 
that  of  the  ten  fold  greater  number  of  the 
Mexicans;  for  the  men,  equally  with  their 
leader,  were  determined  to  maintain  their 
rights,  and  if  need  be,  to  sacrifice  their  lives 
in  defence  of  the  cause  of  American  citizens 
in  Mexico ;  for  in  the  three  days  during  which 
they  lay  there  encamped,  expresses  came  in 
from  the  American  citizens  in  Monterey,  warn- 
ing them  of  their  danger,  and  announcing  too, 
the  probability  of  a  war  with  Mexico,  and 
urging  the  propriety  that  every  American 
should  unite  in  a  common  defence  against  the 
Mexican  authorities. 

At  the  end  6f  three  days  the  council  which 
Fremont  now  called,  agreed  with  him,  that  the 
Mexican  General  had  no  intention  of  attacking 
them,  and  that  it  was  the  more,  prudent  course 
to  break  up  camp,  push  on  to  the  Sacramento 
River,  and  endeavor  at  Lawson's  trading  post 
to  obtain  the  needed  outfit  for  their  return 
homeward  through  Oregon,  as  further  explora- 
tion in  southern  California  seemed  out  of  the 
question;  and  because,  as  an  officer  in  tho 
United  States  service,  Fremont  felt  he  couKl 
not  commence,  or  willingly  court  hostility  with 
the  Mexican  authorities — besides,  all  the  Amer- 
ican residents  in  the  country  were  equally  in 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  267 

peril ;  and  if  the  event  of  war  pressed  upon 
them,  preparation  was  needed,  and  should  be 
made  at  once. 

In  council  Fremont  found  Carson  ready  for 
Huch,  as  for  every  emergency;  and,  around  the 
camp  fires,  where  the  subject  was  discussed, 
every  man  was  ready  for  the  affray ;  and  while 
willing  to  retire  and  wait  the  command  of  the 
leader  evinced  no  disposition  to  avoid  it. 

The  party  remained  ten  days  at  Lawson's 
post,  when  information  was  brought  that  the 
Indians  were  in  arms  at  the  instigation  of  the 
Mexicans,  as  it  was  supposed,  and  were  advan- 
cing to  destroy  the  post,  and  any  other  Amer- 
ican settlement ;  and  it  was  soon  rumored  that 
a  thousand  warriors  were  collected,  and  on 
their  way  to  aid  in  this  purpose.  The  time 
had  now  come  for  action,  and,  with  five  men 
from  the  post,  Captain  Fremont  and  his  com- 
mand, with  Carson  for  his  Lieutenant,  by 
choice  of  the  party,  as  well  as  of  its  leader, 
took  up  their  march  against  the  savages,  in  aid 
of  their  countrymen. 

They  had  no  difficulty  in  finding  the  Indian 
war  party,  and  immediately  made  the  attack, 
which  was  responded  to  with  vigor  by  the  In- 
dians, and  contested  bravely;  but,  of  course, 
with  inability  to  conquer.  The  red  men  were 


268          LIFE    OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

defeated  with  terrible  slaughter,  and  learned 
here  the  lesson  not  forgotten  for  many  years, 
that  it  was  useless  to  measure  their  strength 
with  white  men. 

Carson  was,  of  course,  as  was  his  invariable 
custom,  in  the  thickest  of  the  fight,  and  when 
it  was  over,  and  the  Indians  had  retired,  cowed 
and  defeated,  ventured  the  opinion  that  they 
had  received  a  lesson  which  would  not  be  re- 
quired to  he  repeated  in  many  years. 

This  victory  won,  and  present  danger  from 
these  Indians  thus  avoided,  the  party  returned 
to  Lawson's  post,  where,  having  completed 
their  outfit,  they  turned  their  backs  on  Mexi- 
can possessions,  and  started  northward,  Fre- 
mont looking  to  Oregon  as  the  field  of  his 
future  operations,  intending  to  explore  a  new 
route  to  the  Wah-lah-math  settlements. 

While  on  that  journey,  Carson  being  as  ever 
his  guide,  companion,  and  friend,  the  party 
was  suddenly  surprised  by  the  appearance  of 
two  white  men,  who,  as  all  knew  from  experi- 
ence, must  have  incurred  the  greatest  perils 
and  hazards  to  reach  that  spot. 

They  proved  to  be  two  of  Mr.  Fremont's 
old  wyageurs,  and  quickly  told  their  story. 
They  were  part  of  a  guard  of  six  men  conduct- 
ing a  United  States  officer,  who  was  on  hia 


LIFE   OF   CRHllISTOPHER   CARSON.         2G9 

trail  with  despatches  from  Washington,  and 
whom  they  had  left  two  days  back,  while  they 
came  on  to  give  notice  of  his  approach,  and  to 
ask  that  assistance  might  be  sent  him.  They 
themselves  had  only  escaped  the  Indians  by 
the  swiftness  of  their  horses.  It  was  a  case  ii. 
which  there  was  no  time  to  be  lost,  nor  a  mis- 
take made.  Mr.  Fremont  determined  to  go 
himself;  and  taking  ten  picked  men,  Carson 
of  course  accompanying  him,  he  rode  down  the 
western  shore  of  the  lake  on  the  morning  of 
the  9th,  (the  direction  the  officer  was  to  come,) 
and  made  a  journey  of  sixty  miles  without  a 
halt.  But  to  meet  men,  and  not  to  miss  them, 
wras  the  difficult  point  in  this  trackless  region. 
It  was  not  the  case  of  a  high  road,  where  all 
travelers  must  meet  in  passing  each  other :  at 
intervals  there  were  places — defiles,  or  camping 
grounds — where  both  parties  might  pass  ;  and 
watching  for  these,  he  came  to  one  in  the  after- 
noon, and  decided  that,  if  the  party  was  not 
killed,  it  must  be  there  that  night.  He  halted 
and  encamped;  and,  as  the  sun  was  going 
down,  had  the  inexpressible  satisfaction  to  seo 
the  four  men  approaching.  The  officer  proved 
to  be  Lieutenant  Gillespie,  of  the  United 
States  marines,  who  had  been  despatched  from 
Washington  the  November  previous,  to  make 


27C  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX. 

his  way  by  Vera  Cruz,  the  City  of  Mexico,  and 
Mazatlan,  to  Monterey,  in  Upper  California, 
deliver  despatches  to  the  United  States  consul 
there;  and  then  find  Mr.  Fremont,  wherever 
he  should  be. 

Carson,  in  a  letter  to  the  Washington  Union 
in  June  1847,  thus  describes  the  interview,  and 
the  events  consequent  upon  it : 

"  Mr.  Gillespie  had  brought  the  Colonel  let- 
ters from  home — the  first  he  had  had  since 
leaving  the  States  the  year  before — and  he  was 
up,  and  kept  a  large  fire  burning  until  after 
midnight ;  the  rest  of  us  were  tired  out,  and 
all  went  to  sleep.  This  was  the  only  night  in 
all  our  travels,  except  the  one  night  on  the 
island  in  the  Salt  Lake,  that  we  failed  to  keep 
guard ;  and  as  the  men  were  so  tired,  and  we 
expected  no  attack  now  that  we  had  sixteen  in 
the  party,  the  Colonel  didn't  like  to  ask  it  of 
them,  but  sat  up  late  himself.  Owens  and  I 
were  sleeping  together,  and  we  were  waked  at 
the  same  time  by  the  licks  of  the  axe  that 
killed  our  men.  At  first,  I  didn't  know  it  was 
that ;  but  I  called  to  Basil,  who  was  on  that  side 
— < What's  the  matter  there?— What's  that 
fuss  about?' — he  never  answered,  for  he  was 
dead  then,  poor  fellow,  and  he  never  knew 
what  killed  him — his  head  had  been  cut  in,  ir 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  271 

his  sleep;  the  other  groaned  a  little  as  he 
died.  The  Delawares  (we  had  four  with  us) 
were  sleeping  at  that  fire,  and  they  sprang  up 
as  the  Tlamaths  charged  them.  One  of  them 
iu.ii.ight  up  a  gun,  which  was  unloaded;  but, 
although  he  could  do  no  execution,  he  kept 
them  at  bay,  fighting  like  a  soldier,  and  didn't 
give  up  until  he  was  shot  full  of  arrows — 
three  entering  his  heart ;  he  died  bravely.  As 
soon  as  I  had  called  out,  I  saw  it  was  Indians 
in  the  camp,  and  I  and  Owens  together  cried 
out  '  Indians.'  There  were  no  orders  given  ; 
things  went  on  too  fast,  and  the  Colonel  had 
men  with  him  that  didn't  need  to  be  told  their 
duty.  The  Colonel  and  I,  Maxwell,  Owens, 
Godey,  and  Stepp,  jumped  together,  we  six, 
and  ran  to  the  assistance  of  our  Delawares.  I 
don't  know  who  fired  and  wrho  didn't ;  but  I 
think  it  was  Stepp's  shot  that  killed  the 
Tlamath  chief;  for  it  was  at  the  crack  of 
Stepp's  gun  that  he  fell.  He  had  an  English 
half-axe  slung  to  his  wrrist  by  a  cord,  and  there 
were  forty  arrows  left  in  his  quiver — the  most 
beautiful  and  warlike  arrows  I  ever  saw.  He 
must  have  been  the  bravest  man  among  them, 
from  the  way  he  was  armed,  and  judging  by 
his  cap  When  the  Tlamaths  saw  him  fall, 
they  ran ;  but  we  lay,  every  man  with  his  riflo 


272          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER    CARSON. 

cocked,  until  daylight,  expecting  another  at- 
tack. 

"  In  the  morning  we  found  by  the  tracks 
that  from  fifteen  to  twenty  of  the  Tlamaths 
had  attacked  us.  They  had  killed  three  of  our 
men,  and  wounded  one  of  the  Delawares,  who 
scalped  the  chief,  whom  we  left  where  he  fell. 
Our  dead  men  we  carried  on  mules ;  but,  after 
going  about  ten  miles,  we  found  it  impossible 
to  get  them  any  farther  through  the  thick  tim  • 
ber,  and  finding  a  secret  place,  we  buried  them 
under  logs  and  chunks,  having  no  way  to  dig 
a  grave.  It  was  only  a  few  days  before  this 
fight  that  some  of  these  same  Indians  had 
come  into  our  camp ;  and,  although  we  had 
only  meat  for  two  days,  and  felt  sure  that  we 
should  have  to  eat  mules  for  ten  or  fifteen 
days  to  come,  the  Colonel  divided  with  them, 
and  even  had  a  mule  unpacked  to  give  them 
eotne  tobacco  and  knives." 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

THOSE  who  have  not  been  in  similar 
cannot  properly  appreciate  the  feelings  of  the 
survivors,  as  they  watched  with  their  dead  and 
performed  for  them  the  last  sad  rites.  Fre- 
mont had  lost  Lajeunesse,  whom  they  all  loved, 
and  the  other  two,  Crane  and  the  Delaware 
Indian,  were  not  less  brave  than  he.  The  In- 
dians had  watched  for  Lieutenant  Gillespie, 
but  in  Fremont's  coming  up,  while  three  were 
taken,  more  were  saved,  and  the  benefit  to  the 
country,  and  perhaps  the  safety  to  Fremont's 
whole  force  was  secured  by  the  receipt  of  the 
dispatches,  and  this  early  rencontre.  None 
had  apprehended  danger  that  night,  being,  as 
they  erroneously  supposed,  far  removed  from 
the  Tlamath  country,  and  equally  far  from  the 
point  where  they  already  had  encountered  and 
defeated  the  red  men.  The  Indians  never 
again  found  Fremont's  party  off  guard,  for  the 
events  of  this  night  proved  a  serious  and  mol- 
18  U73) 


274          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

ancholy,  as  well  as  a  sufficient  lesson.  That 
they  cherished  revenge,  is  not  to  be  wondered 
at,  nor  that  they  vowed  to  seek  it  at  the 
earliest  opportunity,  as  it  was  now  known  that 
war  had  been  declared  with  Mexico,  for  such 
was  the  tenor  of  Lieut.  Gillespie's  information. 
Fremont  determined  to  return  to  California, 
and  choosing  to  give  his  men  a  chance  for  re- 
venge before  doing  so,  he  traveled  around 
Tlamath  lake,  and,  camping  at  a  spot  nearly 
opposite  where  his  three  men  had  been  killed, 
the  next  morning  sent  Carson  on  in  advance, 
with  ten  chosen  men,  and  with  instructions 
that,  if  he  discovered  a  large  Indian  village, 
without  being  seen  himself,  he  should  send 
back  word,  and  that  he  would  hasten  on  with 
the  rest  of  the  party  and  give  them  battle : 
but  if  this  could  not  be  done,  to  attack  the 
village  himself,  if  he  thought  the  chances  were 
equal. 

Of  course  Carson  and  his  men  were  parties 
to  this  advice,  choosing  the  situation  of  danger 
because  only  in  that  wray  could  they  revenge 
the  death  of  their  comrades. 

They  were  not  long  in  finding  a  trail,  which 
they  followed  to  a  village  of  fifty  lodges,  in 
each  of  which  were  probably  three  warriors. 
The  village  was  in  commotion,  which  indicated 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.          275 

tnnt  they  had  discovered  Carson  and  his  party  ; 
so  that  no  time  could  be  lost,  and  Carson  and 
his  comrades  at  once  determined  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  the  confusion  in  which  the  Indian 
camp  seemed  to  be,  by  making  a  sudden 
charge. 

The  Indians  had  their  families  to  defend,  and 
were  brave  in  proportion  as  that  motive  is  an 
incentive  to  activity,  therefore  the  attack  of  the 
white  men  was  received  and  met  with  despera- 
tion. But  a  panic  of  fear  seized  them,  owing 
to  the  suddenness  of  the  attack,  and  they  fled, 
leaving  behind  them  all  their  possessions,  while 
the  victors  pursued  and  shot  them  down  with- 
out mercy,  and  when  the  victory  was  declared 
complete  by  their  leader  Carson,  they  returned 
to  the  richly-stored  village.  In  all  their  travels 
and  adventures,  they  had  never  seen  an  Indian 
village  in  which  the  lodges  were  more  tasteful 
in  their  workmanship  and  their  decorations,  or 
which  were  better  supplied  with  utensils  of  con- 
venience. The  wigwams  were  woven  of  the 
broad  leaves  of  a  kind  of  flag  which  was  highly 
combustible.  Carson  therefore  ordered  that 
they  should  be  burned,  having  first  visited  them 
to  see  that  their  contents  were  so  arranged  as 
to  be  consumed  in  the  conflagration.  Iho 
work  was  completed  in  a  few  moments,  and 


276  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON". 

F^mont,  seeing  the  smoke,  knew  that  Carson 
was  engaged  with  the  Indians,  and  hastened 
forward  to  render  him  any  needed  assistance. 
But  he  arrived  only  to  hear  the  report  of  his 
lieutenant,  and  to  have  the  gloom  of  the  whole 
party  dispelled  by  the  news  of  the  victory  ac- 
complished ;  and  to  move  on  a  little  for  an  en- 
campment, and  a  talk  in  regard  to  their  future 
operations. 

The  next  day  all  started  for  the  valley  of  the 
Sacramento,  and  were  four  days  out  from  their 
camp  when  they  came  to  a  point  on  the  river 
where  it  passes  through  a  deep  canon,  through 
which  the  trail  would  take  them,  hut  Carson 
advised  to  avoid  this  gorge,  and  they  were  wise 
in  doing  so,  as  Tlamath  Indians  were  concealed 
there,  intending  to  cut  off  the  party  of  white 
men.  Disappointed  that  they  had  lost  their 
prey,  the  Indians  came  out  from  this  ambush, 
and  were  immediately  dispersed  by  Carson  and 
Godey,  and  a  few  others,  who  made  a  charge 
upon  them.  But  one  old  Indian,  inspired 
probably  by  revenge  for  some  friend  lost,  stood 
his  ground,  and  with  several  arrows  in  his 
mouth  waited  the  attack  he  courted.  Carson 
and  Godey  advanced,  and  when  within  shooting 
distance,  were  obliged  to  dodge  rapidly  to  avoid 
the  arrows  leveled  at  them.  The  Indian  was 


LIFE   OF  CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.       277 

behind  a  tree,  and  only  by  cautiously  advancing 
while  dodging  the  death  he  was  sending  from 
his  bow,  did  Carson  gain  a  position  where  he 
was  able  to  aim  a  bullet  at  his  heart.  The 
beautiful  bow  and  still  unexhausted  quiver  that 
Carson  took  from  this  Indian,  he  presented  to 
Lieutenant  Gillespie  on  his  return  to  camp. 

They  were  in  a  locality  where  game  was 
scarce,  not  being  able  to  find  any,  the  whole 
party  went  supperless  that  night  and  breakfast- 
less  next  morning,  but  the  next  day  they  found 
some  game,  and  came,  after  severe  traveling 
fur  some  days  longer,  safely  in  to  Peter  Law- 
son's  Fort,  where  they  rested  and  hunted  a 
week,  and  then  moved  lower  down  on  the  Sac- 
ramento, and  again  camped.  But  his  men 
were  restless  from  inactivity,  and  Fremont  de- 
cided it  was  no  longer  wise  to  wait  for  positive 
instructions,  as  the  war  was  probably  com- 
menced ;  he  therefore  sent  a  part  of  his  force 
to  take  the  little  town  and  fort  at  Sonoma, 
which  had  but  a  weak  garrison.  They  captured 
General  Vallejos  here,  with  two  captains  and 
several  cannon,  and  a  quantity  of  arms.  The 
whole  force  united  at  Sonoma,  and  learning 
that  the  Mexicans  and  Americans  in  the  south 
were  engaged  in  open  hostility,  Fremont  was 
preparing  to  join  them,  calling  in  all  the 


278  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

Americans  in  the  vicinity  to  come  to  his  com- 
mand, when  a  large  Mexican  force,  dispatched 
by  General  Castro  from  San  Francisco,  with 
orders  to  drive  the  Americans  out  of  the  country, 
came  into  the  vicinity,  and  took  prisoners  and 
killed  two  men,  whom  Fremont  had  sent  out 
as  messengers  to  the  American  settlers,  to  in- 
form them  that  Sonoma  was  taken,  and  that 
they  could  fly  thither  for  safety. 

The  captain  of  this  party  of  Mexicans,  bear- 
ing that  Fremont  and  his  forces  were  anxious 
to  attack  him,  lost  all  courage  and  fled,  to  be 
pursued  by  the  party  of  explorers,  who  fol- 
lowed them  closely  for  six  days,  and  captured 
many  horses  which  they  had  abandoned  in 
their  fright.  But  finding  they  could  not  over- 
take them,  Fremont  returned  to  Sonoma,  and 
the  party  of  Mexicans  continued  their  march 
to  Los  Angelos,  where  General  Castro  joined 
them. 

Around  Fremont's  party,  the  American  citi- 
zens now  rallied  in  great  numbers — nearly  all 
who  were  in  the  country — knowing  that  their 
time  to  aid  in  its  emancipation  had  arrived. 
Fremont  left  a  strong  garrison  at  Sonoma,  and 
went  to  S utter 's  Fort,  where  he  left  his  pris- 
oners, General  Vallejos  and  the  two  captains, 
and  an  American,  a  brother-in-law  of  General 


LIKE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX.  279 

Vallejos,  and  having  put  the  fort  under  military 
rules,  with  all  his  mountain  men,  started  to 
take  possession  of  Monterey.  But  he  had  been 
anticipated  in  this  work  by  Commodore  Sloat, 
who  was  in  port  with  the  American  squadron, 
and  who  left  soon  after  Fremont's  arrival, 
Commodore  Stockton  assuming  the  command. 
While  at  Sonoma,  Fremont  and  his  moun- 
tain men,  with  the  American  settlers,  had  de- 
clared the  Independence  of  California,  and 
assumed  the  Bear  Fkg,  which  he  gallantly 
tendered  to  Commodore  Sloat,  and  the  flag  of 
the  United  States  was  hoisted  over  his  camp 


CHAPTER    XXVII. 

WITH  Carson  as  his  constant  advisor,  as  he 
was  new  his  acknowledged  friend,  Fremont 
here  obtained  the  use  of  the  ship  Cyanne,  to 
convey  himself  and  his  command  to  San  Diego, 
where  they  hoped  to  be  able  to  obtain  animals, 
and  march  upon  the  Mexicans  under  General 
Castro,  who  was  then  at  Los  Angelos,  leaving 
their  own  for  the  use  of  Commodore  Stockton 
and  his  marines,  who  were  to  meet  them  at 
that  place. 

With  the  Americans  who  joined  him  at  San 
Diego,  all  of  them  pioneers  of  the  true  stamp, 
inured  to  hardships,  hard  fare,  and  Indian 
fights,  Fremont's  command  numbered  one 
hundred  and  fifty  men,  who  started  for  Los 
Angelos,  with  perfect  confidence  in  their  own 
success,  though  the  force  of  the  enemy  was 
seven  or  eight  hundred. 

Fremont  camped  a  league  from  this  beautiful 
tcwn,  to  await  the  arriral  of  the  Commodore, 

(280) 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.          281 

who  soon  joined  him,  with  "as  fine  a  body  of 
men  as  I  ever  looked  upon,"  to  quote  Carson's 
own  words,  and  the  forces  thus  united,  marched 
at  once  upon  Los  Angelos,  which  they  found 
deserted,  as  General  Castro*  dared  not  risk  a 
battle  with  such  men  as  he  knew  Fremont 
commanded. 

After  this,  Fremont  was  appointed  Governor 
of  California  by  Commodore  Stockton,  and  re- 
turned to  Monterey  and  the  northern  portion 
of  the  country,  while  the  Commodore  went  to 
San  Diego,  as  that  was  a  better  port  than  San 
Pedro,  the  port  of  Los  Angelos ;  and  General 
Castro  returned  to  the  possession  of  Los  An 
gelos. 

Meantime,  Carson,  with  a  force  of  fifteen 
men,  was  dispatched  to  make  the  overland 
journey  to  Washington,  as  the  bearer  of  im- 
portant dispatches.  He  was  instructed  to  make 
the  journey  in  sixty  days  if  possible,  which  he 
felt  sure  of  being  able  to  accomplish,  though 
no  one  knew,  better  than  he  did,  the  difficulties 
he  might  expect  to  encounter. 

When  two  days  out  from  the  copper  mines 
of  New  Mexico,  he  came  suddenly  upon  a 
village  of  Apache  Indians,  which  his  quick  wit 
enabled  him  to  elude.  He  rode  forward  in  his 
path,  as  if  unmindful  of  their  presence,  and 


282          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER    CARSON. 

halted  in  a  wood  a  few  yards  from  the  village, 
which  seemed  to  disconcert  the  inhabitants, 
unused  to  being  approached  with  so  much 
boldness,  as  they  had  never  been  treated  in 
that  manner  by  the  Mexicans.  He  here  de- 
manded a  parley,  which  was  granted,  and  ho 
told  them  that  his  party  were  simply  travelers 
on  the  road  to  New  Mexico,  and  that  they  had 
come  to  their  village  for  an  exchange  of  ani- 
mals, as  theirs  were  nearly  exhausted. 

The  Indians  were  satisfied  with  his  explana- 
tion ;  and  Carson,  choosing  as  his  camping- 
ground  a  suitable  spot  for  defense,  traded  with 
the  Apaches  to  advantage,  and  at  an  early  hour 
on  the  following  morning  resumed  his  journey, 
glad  to  be  thus  easily  rid  of  such  treacherous, 
thieving  rascals.  A  few  more  clays  of  travel 
brought  him  to  the  Mexican  settlements,  and 
near  to  his  own  home  and  family.  The  party 
had  been,  for  some  time,  short  of  provisions,  as 
their  haste  in  traveling  did  not  allow  them  to 
stop  to  hunt,  and  on  the  route — desert  much 
of  the  way — there  had  been  little  game ;  and 
now,  with  only  a  little  corn  which  they  ate 
parched,  they  were  glad  of  relief,  which  Carson 
readily  obtained  from  friends  at  the  first  rancho 
he  entered  ;  for  though  the  country  was  at  war 
with  the  United  States,  Carson  was  a  Mexican 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.          283 

as  much  as  an  American,  having  chosen  their 
country  for  his  home,  and  taken  a  wife  from 
their  people.  He  was  pursuing  his  course 
towards  Taos,  when,  across  a  broad  prairie,  he 
espied  a  speck  moving  towards  him,  which  his 
eagle  eye  soon  discerned  could  not  belong  to 
the  country.  As  it  neared  him,  and  its  form 
became  visible,  hastening  on,  he  met  an  expe- 
dition sent  out  by  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment to  operate  in  California,  under  the  com- 
mand of  General  Kearney,  to  which  officer  he 
lost  no  time  in  presenting  himself,  and  narrated 
to  him  his  errand,  and  the  state  of  affairs  in 
California,  with  the  most  graphic  fidelity. 
Kearney  was  extremely  glad  to  meet  him,  and 
after  detaining  him  as  long  as  Carson  thought 
it  wise  to  remain,  proposed  to  Carson  to  return 
with  him,  while  he  should  send  the  dispatches 
to  Washington  by  Mr.  Fitzpatrick — with  whom 
Carson  had  a  familiar  acquaintance ;  and  know- 
ing how  almost  invaluable  his  services  would 
be  to  General  Kearney,  Carson  gave  the  ready 
answer,  "  As  the  General  pleases/'  trusting  en- 
tirely to  his  fidelity  in  the  matter,  and  as  the 
exchange  was  a  self-denial  to  him,  he  had  no 
occasion  to  weigh  the  motives  that  might  influ- 
ence a  man  like  General  Keamey  in  the  affair 
of  the  dispatches,  or  the  good  that  his  presence 


284          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

with  them  might  be  to  himself  when  he  should 
arrive  in  Washington,  but  while  he  would  have 
been  glad  to  have  met  his  family,  he  cared  for 
the  honor  of  having  done  his  duty. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

ON  the  18th  of  October,  Gen.  Kearney  took 
tip  his  march  from  his  camp  upon  the  Rio 
Grande,  having  Christopher  Carson  for  his 
guide,  with  instructions  to  lead  the  party  by 
the  most  direct  route  to  California:  and  so 
ably  did  Carson  fulfill  this  official  duty,  so  un- 
expectedly imposed  upon  him,  that,  with  their 
animals  in  good  condition  still,  they  camped 
within  the  limit  of  California  on  the  evening 
of  the  third  of  December,  and  the  next  morn- 
ing advanced  towards  San  Diego. 

But  the  Mexicans  were  not  unapprised  of 
the  approach  of  American  troops,  and  spies 
sent  out  by  General  Castro,  to  meet  Kearney's 
force,  were  surprised  and  brought  into  camp 
by  a  scout  which  Carson  attended.  Compelled 
to  give  information,  they  said  that  the  Mexi- 
can forces  under  its  general,  were  planning  an 
attack  upon  the  Americans  before  they  could 

join  their  California  allies.     Carson,  with  the 

(285) 


286          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

understanding  he  had  of  Gen.  Kearney,  aM 
his  knowledge  of  guerrilla  warfare,  would  have 
advised  another  route,  to  evade  the  Mexican 
troops  and  avoid  a  battle,  until  the  weary  and 
newly  arrived  soldiery  had  had  some  rest,  and 
the  assistance  and  advice  of  those  who  knew 
the  last  movements  of  the  Mexicans,  could 
make  a  battle  more  effectual  with  less  of  risk 
than  now;  but  General  Kearney  wras  impa- 
tient for  an  encounter  with  the  stupid  Mex- 
icans, as  he  deemed  them,  and  only  learned  by 
experience  that  the  Californians  were  superior 
to  those  he  had  known  in  other  of  the  Mexican 
States,  both  in  courage  and  natural  tact,  and  in 
their  military  order  and  discipline,  as  the  story 
will  fully  show. 

lie  kept  on  his  course  until  he  approached 
within  fifteen  miles  of  the  Mexican  camp, 
where  he  halted,  and  despatched  a  party  to 
reconnoitre.  They  reported  on  their  return, 
that  the  enemy  were  strongly  fortified  in  an 
Indian  village;  but  in  making  the  observation 
(lie  scout  had  been  discovered  and  pursued 
back  to  camp. 

General  Kearney  determined  to  make  an 
immediate  attack,  and  commenced  his  march 
at  one  o'clock  in  the  morning,  with  no  rest 
that  night  for  his  animals  or  for  his  men ;  and 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  287 

weary  and  hungry  before  day,  when  within  a 
mile  of  Castro's  camp,  the  advance  guard  of 
the  Americans  came  upon  the  advance  guard 
of  the  Mexicans,  which  had  been  stationed  to 
prevent  a  surprise. 

This  Mexican  guard  slept  in  their  dress, 
ready  at  a  five  minutes'  warning  to  mount  in 
their  saddles,  which  were  their  pillows,  while 
their  horses  were  tied  to  feed  close  around 
them.  The  sound  of  the  trumpet  com- 
manded first  a  rapid  trot,  then  a  gallop,  and 
the  fifteen  Americans  under  Captain  Johnson 
with  Kit  Carson,  of  course,  for  his  next  officer, 
had  a  brisk  fight  with  this  Mexican  outpost, 
but  failed  to  stampede  their  animals,  as  each 
Mexican  mounted  his  own  horse  immediately, 
and  the  guard  drew  back  into  camp.  Capt. 
Johnson  and  Carson  were  now  joined  by  Capt. 
Moore  with  twenty  five  Americans,  a  force 
that  had  united  with  Kearney's  since  he 
came  into  California,  when  Moore  ordered  an 
attack  upon  the  centre  of  the  Mexican  force, 
in  order  to  divide  it,  and  cause  confusion  in 
the  Mexican  ranks. 

The  command  of  forty  men  were  within  a 
hundred  yards  of  the  enemy,  and  Carson 
among  the  foremost,  when  his  horse  suddenly 
fell  and  threw  its  rider,  who  was  not  seriously 


288          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOff. 

injured ;  but  the  stock  of  his  gun  was  shivered 
to  splinters,  and  his  position  one  of  exceeding 
danger,  as  the  whole  body  of  dragoons  went 
galloping  over  him.  When  he  could  arise 
from  the  ground,  he  saw  a  dead  horseman 
lying  near,  whom  he  relieved  of  gun  and 
cartridge  box,  and  again  mounting  his  horse, 
upon  whose  bridle  he  had  managed  to  retain 
his  hold,  he  was  speedily  in  the  thickest  of  the 
fight,  where  the  contest  was  becoming  des- 
perate. 

Capt.  Johnson  and  several  of  the  soldiers  in 
the  advance  had  already  been  killed,  and 
probably  only  the  fall  of  his  horse  had  saved 
Carson's  life,  but  he  was  now  able  to  assist 
Moore  and  his  men  to  dislodge  the  Mexicans, 
and  oblige  them  to  retreat.  The  Americans 
pursued  them,  but  as  there  were  only  forty  in 
the  whole  of  General  Kearney's  command  who 
were  mounted  on  horses,  and  the  mules  which 
were  ridden  by  the  rest  had  become  at  once 
unmanageable  when  the  firing  commenced, 
(heir  success  was  not  complete.  The  horses 
they  had  were  wild,  having  been  captured  by 
Capt.  Davidson  and  Kit  Carson  since  their  ar- 
rival in  California,  from  a  party  of  Mexicans 
bound  for  Sonora,  so  that  even  Moore's  party 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.          289 

had  become  scattered  in  the  chase,  and  the 
pursuit  accomplished  very  little. 

The  Mexicans  immediately  discovered  the 
condition  of  the  Americans,  and  turning  buc  k, 
recommenced  the  fight,  which  had  been  nearly 
a  bloodless  victory  until  now,  but  soon  became 
for  the  Americans,  a  terrible  slaughter.  Every 
moment  some  dragoon  yielded  his  life  to  the 
bullet  or  the  deadly  blow  of  an  exasperated 
Mexican,  and  of  the  forty  dragoons  on  horses 
thirty  were  either  killed  or  severely  wounded. 
Captain  Moore,  whom  Carson  calls,  "  as  brave 
a  man  as  ever  drew  the  breath  of  life,"  was 
already  among  the  killed.  As  fast  as  the 
American  soldiers  could  come  up,  they  joined 
the  battle,  but  the  Mexicans  fought  with  a 
bravery  unsurpassed,  and  seemed  to  carry  all 
before  them. 

Gen.  Kearney  now  drew  his  sword,  and 
placed  himself  at  the  head  of  his  remaining 
forces,  and  though  severely  wounded,  attempted 
to  nuTiin  force  the  Mexicans  to  retreat,  while 
Lieutenant  Davidson  came  up  with  two  moun- 
tain howitzers;  but  before  he  could  unlimber 
them  for  use,  the  men  who  were  working  them 
were  shot  down,  and  the  lasso,  thrown  with 
unerring  aim,  h:ul  captured  the  horses  attached 

to  one  of  them,  and  the  gun  was  taken  to 
19 


290          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

ranks  of  the  enemy,  who,  for  some  reason^ 
could  not  make  it  go  off,  or  the  American 
howitzer,  at  the  distance  of  three  hundred 
yards,  would  have  done  execution  against  those 
who  had  brought  it  thousands  of  miles  to  this 
point,  to  have  it  turned  against  them  ;  though 
Lieutenant  Davidson  had  nearly  lost  his  life  in 
the  attempt  to  save  it,  but  to  no  purpose. 

The  Americans  were  now  obliged  to  take 
refuge  at  a  point  of  rocks  that  offered,  near 
where  they  had  been  defeated,  for  they  had  but 
two  officers  besides  Carson,  who  were  not  either 
killed  or  wounded ;  and  here  they  waited  for 
the  Mexicans,  but  they  did  not  again  venture 
an  attack. 

The  fighting  had  continued  throughout  the 
entire  day;  both  sides  were  weary  and  spent,  and 
night  closed  over  this  scene  of  battle,  without 
any  positive  result  to  either  party.  Gen. 
Kearney  must  now  attend  to  the  wounded,  and 
all  night  the  camp  was  occupied  in  the  sad 
work  of  burying  its  dead,  and  alleviating  the 
agony  of  the  sufferers ;  while,  at  the  same 
time,  a  close  watch  was  kept  for  the  enemy, 
who  were  constantly  receiving  reinforcements, 
of  Indians  as  well  as  Mexicans,  from  the 
country  around.  A  council  of  war  was  held, 
which  at  once  decided  it  was  best  to  advance 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.          291 

toward  San  Diego  in  the  morning,  with  the 
hope  of  soon  receiving  additions  to  their  forces. 
Gen.  Kearney  had  dispatched  three  men  to  San 
Diego,  with  messages  to  Commodore  Stockton, 
and  before  the  battle  commenced,  they  had 
come  back  within  sight  of  their  comrades, 
when  they  were  taken  prisoners  by  the  enemy ; 
and  whether  they  had  succeeded  in  getting 
through  to  San  Diego,  Gen.  Kearney  did  not 
know.  Early  in  the  morning,  the  command 
was  again  upon  its  way,  with  the  following 
order  of  march :  Carson,  with  twenty-five  still 
able-bodied  men,  formed  the  advance,  and  the 
remainder,  a  much  crippled  band  of  soldiers, 
followed  in  the  trail  that  he  had  made.  Their 
march  was  continued  all  the  morning,  in  the 
constant  expectation  of  an  attack  from  the 
Mexicans,  who  were  also  moving  on,  sometimes 
out  of  sight  in  the  valleys,  and  sometimes  seen 
from  the  neighboring  hills.  When  the  first 
opportunity  occurred,  Gen.  Kearney  demanded 
a  parley,  and  arranged  to  exchange  a  lieutenant, 
whose  horse  had  been  shot  from  under  him 
during  the  battle,  and  who  had  consequently 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  Americans,  for  one 
of  the  express  messengers  the  Mexicans  were 
detaining ;  but  it  availed  nothing,  for  the  ex- 
pressman stated  that,  finding  it  impossible  to 


292         LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER 

reacli  San  Diego,  he  and  his  companions  had 
returned,  when  the/  were  captured  by  tho 
Mexicans. 

The  Mexicans  had  been  manoeuvering  all 
day,  and  toward  evening,  as  the  Americana 
were  about  going  into  camp  by  a  stream  of 
water,  came  down  upon  them  in  two  divisions, 
making  a  vigorous  charge.  The  Americans 
were  obliged  to  retire  before  such  vastly 
superior  numbers,  and  marched  in  order  to  a 
nill  a  little  distance  off,  where  they  halted  to 
give  the  Mexicans  battle ;  but  the  latter,  seeing 
the  advantage  of  the  position,  drew  off  to  a 
neighboring  height,  where  they  commenced  and 
continued  a  deadly  cannonade  upon  the  Ameri- 
cans. A  party  of  Americans  wras  sent  to  dis- 
lodge them,  which  they  accomplished,  and  the 
whole  force  of  the  Americans  went  over  to 
occupy  that  position,  as  they  were  compelled  to 
make  a  resting  place  somewhere,  because  it  was 
no  longer  possible  for  them  to  continue  their 
march,  with  the  Mexican  force  ready  at  any 
time  to  fall  upon  them.  Upon  this  hill  there 
was  barely  water  enough  for  the  men,  and  to 
take  the  horses  to  the  stream  could  not  bo 
thought  of,  for  the  Mexicans  would  surely  cap- 
ture them;  nor  had  they  any  food  left,  except 
as  they  killed  and  ate  their  mules. 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER    CARSOX.  293 

The  condition  of  the  party  had  become  ex- 
tremely desperate,  and  the  war  council  that 
\vas  called,  discussed  a  variety  of  measures, 
equally  desperate  with  their  condition,  for  im- 
mediate relief,  until,  when  the  rest  had  made 
their  propositions,  Carson  again  showed  him- 
self "  the  right  man  in  the  right  place,"  and 
when  all  besides  were  hopeless,  was  the  salva- 
tion of  his  party.  He  rose  in  the  council  and 
said : 

"  Our  case  is  a  desperate  one,  but  there  is  yet 
hope.  If  we  stay  here,  we  are  all  dead  men ; 
our  animals  cannot  last  long,  and  the  soldiers 
and  marines  at  San  Diego  do  not  know  of  our 
coming.  But  if  they  receive  information  of  our 
position,  they  would  hasten  to  our  rescue. 
There  is  no  use  in  thinking  why  or  how  we  are 
here,  but  only  of  our  present  and  speedy  es- 
cape. I  will  attempt  to  go  through  the  Mexi- 
can lines,  and  will  then  go  to  San  Diego,  and 
send  relief  from  Commodore  Stockton." 

Lieutenant  Beale,  of  the  United  States  Navy, 
at  once  seconded  Carson,  and  volunteered  to 
accompany  him. 

Lieutenant  Beale  is  now  widely  known  for 
his  valuable  services  to  the  country,  and,  as  an 
explorer,  he  has  few  equals  in  the  world. 

The  writer  is  informed  that  he  is  now  deeply 


294          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

interested  in  a  wagon  road  across  the  country 
by  the  route  he  had  just  crossed,  at  the  time 
of  which  we  write.  His  life  has  been  full  of 
strange  adventures,  since  he  left  the  service  of 
the  seas. 

Gen.  Kearney  immediately  accepted  the  pro- 
posal of  Carson  and  Lieutenant  Beale,  as  his 
only  hope,  and  they  started  at  once,  as  soon  as 
the  cover  of  darkness  was  hung  around  them. 
Their  mission  was  to  be  one  of  success  or  of 
death  to  themselves,  and  the  whole  force.  Car- 
son was  familiar  with  the  custom  of  the  Mexi- 
cans, as  well  as  the  Indians,  of  putting  their 
ear  to  the  ground  to  detect  any  sound,  and 
knew,  therefore,  the  necessity  of  avoiding  the 
slightest  noise.  As  this  was  not  possible, 
wearing  their  shoes,  they  removed  them,  and 
putting  them  under  their  belts,  crept  on  over 
the  bushes  and  rocks,  with  the  greatest  caution 
and  silence. 

They  discovered  that  the  Mexicans  had  three 

«/ 

rows  of  sentinels,  whose  beats  extended  past 
each  other,  embracing  the  hill  where  Kearney 
and  his  command  were  held  in  siege.  They 
were,  doubtless,  satisfied  that  they  could  not 
be  eluded.  But  our  messengers  crept  on,  often 
go  near  a  sentinel  as  to  see  his  figure  and 
equipment  in  the  darkness ;  and  once,  when 


LIFE   OF   CRHRISTOPHER   CARSON.         295 

within  a  few  yards  of  them,  one  of  the  senti- 
nels had  dismounted  and  lighted  his  cigaretto 
with  his  flint  and  steel.  Kit  Carson  seeing 
this,  as  he  lay  flat  on  the  ground,  had  put  his 
foot  back  and  touched  Lieutenant  Beale,  a  sig- 
nal to  be  still  as  he  was  doing.  The  minutes 
the  Mexican  was  occupied  in  this  way,  seemed 
hours  to  our  heroes,  who  expected  they  were 
discovered  ;  and  Carson  affirms  that  they  were 
so  still  he  could  hear  Lieutenant  Beale's  heart 
pulsate,  and  in  the  agony  of  the  time  he  lived 
a  year.  But  the  Mexican  finally  mounted  his 
horse,  and  rode  off  in  a  contrary  direction,  as 
if  he  were  guided  by  Providence,  to  give  safety 
to  these  courageous  adventurers.  For  full  two 
miles  Kit  Carson  and  Lieutenant  Beale  thus 
worked  their  way  along,  upon  their  hands  and 
knees,  turning  their  eyes  in  every  direction  to 
detect  any  thing  which  might  lead  to  their  dis- 
covery, and  having  past  the  last  sentinel,  and 
left  the  lines  sufficiently  behind  them,  they  felt 
an  immeasurable  relief  in  once  more  gaining 
their  feet. 

But  their  shoes  were  gone,  and  in  the  ex- 
citement of  the  journey,  neither  of  them  had 
thought  of  their  shoes  since  they  first  put  them 
in  their  belts  ;  but  they  could  speak  a^ain,  and 
congratulate  each  other  that  the  imminent 


296          LIFE    OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

danger  was  past,  and  thank  heaven  that  the) 
had  been  aided  thus  far.  But  there  were 
still  abundant  difficulties,  as  their  path  was 
rough  with  bushes,  from  the  necessity  of 
avoiding  the  well-trodden  trail  lest  they  be 
detected;  and  the  prickly  pear  covered  the 
ground,  and  its  thorns  penetrated  their  feet  at 
every  step ;  and  their  road  was  lengthened  by 
going  around  out  of  the  direct  path,  though 
the  latter  would  have  shortened  their  journey 
many  a  w^eary  mile.  All  the  day  following 
they  pursued  their  journey,  and  on  still, 
without  cessation,  into  the  night  following,  for 
they  could  not  stop  until  assured  that  relief 
was  to  be  furnished  to  their  anxious  and  peril- 
ous conditioned  fellow  soldiers. 

Carson  had  pursued  so  straight  a  course,  and 
aimed  so  correctly  for  his  mark,  that  they  en- 
tered the  town  by  the  most  direct  passage,  and 
answering  "  friends"  to  the  challenge  of  the 
sentinel,  it  was  known  from  whence  they  came, 
and  they  were  at  once  conducted  to  Commo- 
dore Stockton,  to  whom  they  related  the  errand 
on  which  they  had  come,  and  the  further  par- 
ticulars we  have  described. 

Commodore  Stockton  immediately  detailed  a 
force  of  nearly  twu  hundred  men,  and  with  his 


LIFE   OF   ClIRISTOrHER   CAKSON.  207 

usual  promptness,  ordered  them  to  seek  their 
besieged  countrymen  by  forced  marches. 

They  took  with  them  a  piece  of  ordnance, 
which  the  men  were  obliged  to  draw  them- 
selves, as  there  were  in  readiness  no  animals 
to  be  had.  Carson  did  not  return  with  them, 
as  his  feet  were  in  a  terrible  condition,  and  he 
needed  to  rest  or  he  might  lose  them,  but  he 
described  the  position  of  General  Kearney  so 
accurately,  that  the  party  to  relieve  him  would 
find  him  with  no  difficulty ;  and  yet,  if  the 
Commodore  had  expressed  the  wish,  he  would 
have  undertaken  to  conduct  the  relief  party 
upon  its  march. 

Lieutenant  Beale  was  partially  deranged  for 
several  days,  from  the  effects  of  this  severe 
service,  and  was  sent  on  board  the  frigate  lying 
in  port  for  medical  attendance ;  but  he  did  not 
fully  recover  his  former  physical  health  for 
more  than  two  years ;  but  he  never  spoke  re- 
gretfully of  an  undertaking,  which  was  not  ex- 
celled by  any  feat  performed  in  the  Mexican 
war. 

The  reinforcement  reached  General  Kearney 
without  a  collision  with  the  Mexicans,  and  very 
soon  all  marched  to  San  Diego,  where  the 
wounded  soldiers  received  medical  attendance. 

Wo  have  spoken  of  the  superiority  of  char' 


208  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX. 

acter  of  the  California  Mexicans  over  that  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  other  Mexican  States. 
The  officials  Appointed  at  the  Mexican  capital 
for  this  State,  were  treated  deferentially  or 
cavalierly,  as  they  consulted  or  disregarded  the 
tdshes  of  the  people,  and  often  it  happened 
that  a  Governor-General  of  California  was  put 
on  board  a  ship  at  Monterey,  and  directed  to 
betake  himself  back  to  those  who  sent  him. 

California  was  so  remote  from  the  head- 
quarters of  the  general  government,  that  these 
things  were  done  with  impunity,  for  it  would 
have  been  difficult  to  send  a  force  into  the  State 
that  could  subdue  it,  with  its  scattered  popula- 
tion, and  if  laws  obnoxious  to  them  were  en- 
acted, and  they  violated  them,  or  expelled  an 
official  who  proposed  their  enforcement,  it  was 
quietly  overlooked.  Managing  their  own  affairs 
in  this  way,  a  spirit  of  independence  and  bold 
daring  had  been  cultivated,  especially  since 
the  time  when  our  story  of  California  life  com- 
menced in  Carson's  first  visit  to  that  State,  nor 
had  the  intercourse  with  Americans  hitherto 
lessened  these  feelings,  for  the  California  Mex- 
icans admired  the  Americans,  as  they  called 
them,  and  cultivated  good  fellowship  with  them 
generally ;  so  that  we  see  when  the  Bear  Flag 
and  Independence  of  the  State  became  the 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX.          299 

order  under  Fremont  and  his  party,  many  of 
its  leading  citizens  came  at  once  into  the  ar- 
rangement, or  were  parties  in  it  at  the  first. 

Had  the  conquest  and  government  of  the 
country  been  conducted  wholly  by  Fremont,  it 
would  have  exhibited  very  little  expenditure 
of  life,  for  conciliation  and  the  cultivation  of 
kindly  feeling  was  the  policy  he  pursued ;  in- 
deed, with  Carson  as  prime  counselor,  whose 
wife  at  home  in  Taos  owned  kindred  with  this 
people  as  one  of  the  same  race,  how  could  it 
have  been  otherwise !  though  as  Americans  and 
citizens  of  the  United  States,  in  whose  employ 
they  acted,  first  allegiance  was  ever  cheerfully 
accorded  to  their  country,  by  Carson  equally 
with  Fremont,  as  the  history  of  California  most 
fully  proves. 

The  United  States  forces  at  San  Diego  were 
not  in  condition  to  again  take  the  field,  until  a 
number  of  weeks  had  elapsed,  when  a  command 
of  six  hundred  had  been  organized  for  the  pur- 
pose of  again  capturing  Los  Angelos,  where 
the  Mexican  forces  were  concentrated  ,  and 
General  Kearney  and  Commodore  Stockton 
were  united  in  conducting  it,  and  in  two  days 
arrived  within  fifteen  miles  of  the  town,  near 
where  the  Mexican  army,  to  the  number  of 
seven  hundred,  had  established  themselves 


300          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER    CARSON. 

strongly  upon  a  hill  beside  their  camp,  an! 
between  whom  and  the  Americans  flowed  * 
stream  of  water. 

General  Kearney  ordered  two  pieces  of  ar 
tillery  planted  where  they  would  rake  the  po 
si  lion  of  the  Mexicans,  which  soon  forced  them 
to  break  up  their  camp,  when  Gen.  Kearney 
and  Commodore  Stockton  immediately  marched 
into  the  town,  but  only  to  find  it  destitute  of 
any  military  control,  as  the  Mexican  army  had 
gone  northward  to  meet  Col.  Fremont,  who  had 
left  Monterey  with  a  force  of  four   hundred 
Americans,  to  come  to  Los  Angelos. 

The  Mexicans  found  Col.  Fremont,  and  laid 
down  their  arms  to  him,  probably  preferring  to 
give  him  the  honor  of  the  victory  rather  than 
Gen.  Kearney,  though  if  this  was  or  was  not  the 
motive,  history  now  sayeth  not.  Col.  Fremont 
continued  his  march  and  came  to  Los  Angelos, 
and  as  the  fighting  for  the  present  certainly 
was  over,  he  and  his  men  rested  here  for  the 
winter,  where  Carson,  who  had  been  rendering 
all  the  aid  in  his  power  to  Gen.  Kearney,  now 
gladly  joined  his  old  commander. 

The  position  of  the  American  forces,  had  the 
camps  been  harmonious,  was  as  comfortable 
and  conducive  to  happiness  during  the  winter 
as  it  was  possible  for  it  to  be,  and  the  Mexican 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  301 

« 

citizens  of  Los  Angelos  had  been  so  conciliated, 
the  time  might  have  passed  pleasantly.  But, 
as  we  have  intimated,  Gen.  Kearney  had  a 
general  contempt  for  the  Mexicans,  and  his 
position  in  the  camp  forbade  those  pleasant 
civilities  which  had  commenced  in  San  Diego 
before  his  arrival,  and  would  have  been  prose- 
cuted in  Los  Angelos,  to  the  advantage  of  all 
concerned ;  for,  as  many  of  the  men  in  Fre 
mont's  camp  were  old  residents  of  the  country, 
and  known  and  respected  by  the  Mexican 
citizens,  with  whom  some  of  them  had  con- 
tracted intimate  social  relations,  it  is  not 
wonderful  that  the  Mexican  officers  and  sol- 
diers chose  to  lay  down  their  arms  to  him 
and  his  command.  Fremont  had  beside,  at 
the  instigation  of  Carson  as  well  as  of  his  own 
inclination,  taken  every  reasonable  opportunity 
to  gratify  their  love  of  social  life,  by  joining  in 
their  assemblies  as  opportunity  offered ;  and 
for  this,  as  well  as  his  magnanimous  courage, 
we  can  appreciate  their  choice  in  giving  him 
palm  of  victory. 


CHAPTER  XXIX.  ;s 

EVENTS  transpire  rapidly  when  a  country  is 
in  a  state  of  revolution.  Early  in  March  of 
'46  the  little  party  of  explorers  received  the 
"  first  hostile  message"  from  General  Castro — 
the  Commandant  General  of  California — which, 
though  really  a  declaration  of  war,  upon  a 
party  sent  out  by  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment on  a  purely  scientific  expedition,  had 
been  received  and  acted  upon  by  Fremont  with 
moderation,  and  actual  war  had  not  been  de- 
clared until  July,  when  Sonoma  was  taken,  and 
the  flag  of  Independence  hoisted  on  the  fourth 
of  that  month,  and  Fremont  elected  Governor 
of  California. 

While  hearing  indefinitely  of  these  events, 
Commodore  Sloat,  who,  with  the  vessels  be- 
longing to  his  command,  was  lying  at  Mon- 
terey, had  hoisted  the  flag  of  the  United 
States  over  that  city,  anticipating  any  com- 
mand to  do  so  on  the  part  of  his  government, 
1302) 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  303 

and  anticipating  also  the  action  of  the  com- 
mander of  the  British  ship  of  war,  sent  for  a 
similar  purpose,  which  arrived  at  Monterey 
on  the  19th  of  July,  under  the  command  of 
Sir  George  Seymour ;  one  of  whose  officers,  in 
a  book  published  by  him  after  his  return  to 
England,  describes  the  entrance  of  Fremont 
and  his  party  into  Monterey  as  follows : 

"  During  our  stay  in  Monterey,"  says  Mr, 
AValpole,  "  Captain  Fremont  and  his  party  ar- 
rived. They  naturally  excited  curiosity.  Here 
were  true  trappers,  the  class  that  produced  the 
heroes  of  Fennimore  Cooper's  best  works. 
These  men  had  passed  years  in  the  wilds, 
living  upon  their  own  resources;  they  were  a 
curious  set.  A  vast  cloud  of  dust  appeared 
first,  and  thence  in  long  file  emerged  this 
wildest  wild  party.  Fremont  rode  ahead,  a 
spare,  active-looking  man,  with  such  an  eyel 
He  was  dressed  in  a  blouse  and  leggings,  and 
wore  a  felt  hat.  After  him  came  five  Dela- 
ware Indians,  who  were  his  body-guard,  and 
have  been  with  him  through  all  his  wander- 
ings;  they  had  charge  of  t\vo  baggage  horses. 
The  rest,  many  of  them  blacker  than  the  In- 
dians, rode  two  and  two,  the  rifle  held  by  one 
hand  across  the  pommel  of  the  saddle.  Thir- 
ty-nine of  them  are  his  regular  men,  the  rest 


304          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

are  loafers  picked  up  lately ;  his  original  men 
are  principally  backwoodsmen,  from  the  Stato 
of  Tennessee  and  the  banks  of  the  upper 
waters  of  the  Missouri.  He  has  one  or  two 
with  him  who  enjoy  a  high  reputation  in  the 
prairies.  Kit  Carson  is  as  well  known  there 
as  '  the  Duke'  is  in  Europe.  The  dress  of 
these  men  was  principally  a  long  loose  coat  of 
deer  skin,  tied  with  thongs  in  front ;  trowsers 
of  the  same,  of  their  own  manufacture,  which, 
when  wet  through,  they  take  off,  scrape  well 
inside  with  a  knife,  and  put  on  as  soon  as  dry ; 
the  saddles  were  of  various  fashions,  though 
these  and  a  large  drove  of  horses,  and  a  brass 
field-gun,  were  things  they  had  picked  up 
about  California.  They  are  allowed  no  liquor, 
tea  and  sugar  only ;  this,  no  doubt,  has  much 
to  do  writh  their  good  conduct;  and  the  disci- 
pline, too,  is  very  strict.  They  were  marched 
up  to  an  open  space  on  the  hills  near  the  town, 
under  some  large  fires,  and  there  took  up  their 
quarters,  in  messes  of  six  or  seven,  in  the  open 
air.  The  Indians  lay  beside  their  leader.  Ona 
man,  a  doctor,  six  feet  six  high,  was  an  odd- 
looking  fellow.  May  I  never  come  under  his 
nands !" 

Commodore  Stockton  had  arrived  the  same 
day  with  Fremont  and  Carson  and  their  corn- 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.          305 

mand,  and  under  him  Fremont  had  been  ap- 
pointed General  in  Chief  of  the  California 
forces,  with  Carson  for  his  first  Lieutenant; 
Stockton  assuming  the  civil  office  of  Governor 
of  tho  country.  This  had  been  deemed  a 
measure  of  necessity,  from  the  fact  that  the 
California  Mexicans  had  not  yet  learned,  from 
the  Mexican  authorities,  the  actual  delaration 
of  war  between  the  United  States  and  Mexico ; 
and  therefore  looked  upon  the  operations  of 
the  Americans  as  the  acts  of  adventurers  for 
their  own  aggrandizement ;  and  yet,  with  all 
the  intensity  of  feeling  such  ideas  aroused, 
Fremont  and  Carson  had  won  their  admiration 
and  their  hearts,  by  the  rapidity  of  their 
movements,  their  sudden  and  effective  blows, 
and  the  effort  by  dispatch  to  avoid  all  cruelty 
and  bloodshed  as  far  as  possible. 

In  this  way  had  San  Diego,  San  Pedro,  Los 
Angelos,  Santa  Barbara,  and  the  whole  coun- 
try, as  the  Mexican  authorities  declared,  come 
into  the  possession  of  Commodore  Stockton 
and  General  Fremont,  as  a  conquered  territory, 
taken  in  behalf  of  the  United  States;  and  the 
whole  work  been  completed  in  about  sixty  days 
from  the  time  the  first  blow  was  struck;  and 
when  all  was  accomplished,  and  the  conquest 
complete,  Carson  started  upon  his  errand  to 
20 


306  LIFE   OF   CHKISTOPHER   CARSON. 

communicate  the  intelligence  to  the  general 
government  at  Washington ;  with  the  know- 
ledge that  all  the  leading  citizens  of  California, 
native  as  well  as  the  American  settlers,  were 
friendly  to  Fremont,  and  on  his  account  to 
Commodore  Stockton. 

During  the  three  months  of  Carson's  absence, 
events  had  transpired  that  made  it  necessary 
to  do  this  work  over  again,  resulting  in  a 
measure  from  the  indiscretions  of  American 
officers,  which  induced  insurrection  on  the  part 
of  the  Mexicans.  The  arrival  of  General 
Kearney  with  United  States  troops  still  further 
excited  them,  and  produced  results  which  were 
everything  but  pleasant  to  Fremont  and  Com- 
modore Stockton,  the  details  of  which  we  for- 
bear to  give,  simply  saying  that  Carson's  re- 
gard for  Fremont  showed  itself  by  his  return 
to  his  service,  and  doing  all  that  he  could  to 
forward  his  interests,  and  in  his  often  attend- 
ing him  in  his  excursions.  Fremont's  com- 
mand was  an  independent  battalion ;  and  con- 
cerning the  last  and  final  contest,  General 
Kearney  thus  wrote  to  the  War  Department : 

"  This  morning,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Fre- 
mont, of  the  regiment  of  mounted  riflemen, 
reached  here  with  four  hundred  volunteers 
from  the  Sacramento ;  the  enemy  capitulated 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.       307 

with  him  yesterday,  near  San  Fernando,  agree- 
ing to  lay  down  their  arms ;  and  we  have  now 
the  prospect  of  having  peace  and  quietness  in 
this  country,  which  I  hope  may  not  be  inter- 
rupted again." 

It  was  during  Carson's  absence,  en  route  for 
Washington,  that  Fremont  accomplished  the 
most  extraordinary  feat  of  physical  energy  and 
endurance  ever  recorded.  We  find  it  in  the 
"National  Intelligencer,"  of  November  22, 1847, 
and  quote  it  entire,  as  illustrating  not  only  the 
physical  powers  of  human  endurance  produced 
by  practice  and  culture,  but  the  wonderful 
sagacity  and  enduring  qualities  of  the  Califor- 
nia horses : 

"  THE  EXTRAORDINARY  RIDE  OF  LIEUT.  COL.  FREMONT, 
HIS  FRIEND  DON  JESUS  PlCO,  AND  HIS  SERVANT,  JACOB 

DODSON,  FROM  LOS  ANGELOS  TO  MONTEREY  AND  BACK 

IN  MARCH,  1847. 

"  This  extraordinary  ride  of  800  miles  in 
eight  days,  including  all  stoppages  and  near 
two  days'  detention — a  whole  day  and  a  night 
at  Monterey,  and  nearly  two  half  days  at  San 
Luis  Obispo — having  been  brought  into  evi- 
dence before  the  Army  Court  Martial  now  in 
session  in  this  city,  and  great  desire  being  ex- 
pressed by  some  friends  to  know  how  the  ride 


308  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

was  made,  I  herewith  send  you  the  particulars, 
that  you  may  publish  them,  if  you  please,  in 
the  National  Intelligencer,  as  an  incident  con- 
nected with  the  times  and  affairs  under  review 
in  the  trial,  of  which  you  give  so  full  a  report. 
The  circumstances  were  first  got  from  Jacob, 
afterwards  revised  by  Col.  Fremont,  and  I 
drew  them  up  from  his  statement. 

"  The  publication  will  show,  besides  the 
horsemanship  of  the  riders,  the  power  of  the 
California  horse,  especially  as  one  of  the  horses 
was  subjected,  in  the  course  of  the  ride,  to  an 
extraordinary  trial,  in  order  to  exhibit  the 
capacity  of  his  race.  Of  course  this  statement 
will  make  no  allusion  to  the  objects  of  the 
journey,  but  be  confined  strictly  to  its  per- 
formance. 

"  It  was  at  daybreak  on  the  morning  of  the 
22cl  of  March,  that  the  party  set  out  from  La 
Ciudad  de  los  Angelos  (the  city  of  the  Angels) 
in  the  southern  part  of  Upper  California,  to 
proceed,  in  the  shortest  time,  to  Monterey  on 
the  Pacific  coast,  distant  full  four  hundred 
miles.  The  way  is  over  a  mountainous  coun- 
try, much  of  it  uninhabited,  with  no  other  road 
than  a  trace,  and  many  defiles  to  pass,  particu- 
larly the  maritime  defile  of  el  Eincon  or  Puntc 
Grordo,  fifteen  miles  in  extent,  made  by  the 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOrflEK   CAKSOX.          309 

jutting  of  a  precipitous  mountain  into  the  sea, 
and  which  can  only  be  passed  when  the  tide  is 
out  and  the  sea  calm,  and  then  in  many  places 
through  the  waves.  The  towns  of  Santa  Bar- 
bara and  San  Luis  Obispo,  and  occasional 
ranches,  are  the  principal  inhabited  places  on 
the  route.  Each  of  the  party  had  three  hoi 
nine  in  all,  to  take  their  turns  under  the  saddle. 
The  six  loose  horses  ran  ahead,  without  bridle 
or  halter,  and  required  some  attention  to  keep 
to  the  track.  When  wanted  for  a  change,  say 
at  the  distance  of  twenty  miles,  they  were 
caught  by  the  lasso,  thrown  either  by  Don  Jesus 
or  the  servant  Jacob,  who,  though  born  in 
Washington,  in  his  long  expeditions  with  Col. 
Fremont,  had  become  as  expert  as  a  Mexican 
with  the  lasso,  as  sure  as  the  mountaineer  with 
the  rifle,  equal  to  either  on  horse  or  foot,  and 
always  a  lad  of  courage  and  fidelity. 

"  None  of  the  horses  were  shod,  that  beini:  a. 
practice  unknown  to  the  Californians.  The 
most  usual  gait  was  a  sweeping  gallop.  The 
first  day  they  ran  one  hundred  and  twenty-live 
mile?,  passing  the  San  Fernando  mountain,  the 
defile  of  the  Rincon,  several  other  mountains, 
and  slept  at  tin*  hospitable  ranche  of  Don 
Thomas  Uoltbcris,  beyond  the  town  of  Santa 
Barbara.  The  only  fatigttC  complained  of  in 


310          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARS.Off. 

this  day's  ride,  was  in  Jacob's  right  arm,  made 
tired  by  throwing  the  lasso,  and  using  it  as  a 
whip  to  keep  the  loose  horses  to  the  track. 

"  The  next  day  they  made  another  one  hun- 
dred arid  twenty-five  miles,  passing  the  formi- 
dable mountain  of  Santa  Barbara,  and  counting 
upon  it  the  skeletons  of  some  fifty  horses,  part 
of  near  double  that  number  which  perished  in 
the  crossing  of  that  terrible  mountain  by  the 
California  battalion,  on  Christmas  day,  1846, 
amidst  a  raging  tempest,  and  a  deluge  of  rain 
and  cold  more  killing  than  that  of  the  Sierra 
Nevada — the  day  of  severest  suffering,  say 
Fremont  and  his  men,  that  they  have  ever 
passed.  At  sunset,  the  party  stopped  to  sup 
with  the  friendly  Capt.  Dana,  and  at  nine  at 
night  San  Luis  Obispo  was  reached,  the  home 
of  Don  Jesus,  and  where  an  affecting  reception 
awaited  Lieutenant-Colonel  Fremont,  in  con- 
sequence of  an  incident  which  occurred  there 
that  history  will  one  day  record ;  and  he  was 
detained  till  10  o'clock  in  the  morning  receiving 
the  visits  of  the  inhabitants,  (mothers  and 
children  included,)  taking  a  breakfast  of  honor, 
and  waiting  for  a  relief  of  fresh  horses  to  be 
brought  in  from  the  surrounding  country. 
Here  the  nine  horses  from  Los  Angelos  were 
left,  and  eight  others  taken  in  their  place,  mid 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  311 

a  Spanish  boy  added  to  the  party  to  assist  in 
managing  the  loose  horses. 

u  Proceeding  at  the  usual  gait  till  eight 
at  night,  arid  having  made  some  seventy  miles, 
Don  Jesus,  who  had  spent  the  night  before 
with  his  family  and  friends,  and  probably  with 
but  little  sleep,  became  fatigued,  and  proposed 
a  halt  for  a  few  hours.  It  was  in  the  valley  of 
the  Salinas  (salt  river  called  Buena  Ventura  in 
the  old  maps,)  and  the  haunt  of  marauding 
Indians.  For  safety  during  their  repose,  the 
party  turned  off  the  trace,  issued  through  a 
canon  into  a  thick  wood,  and  laid  down,  the 
horses  being  put  to  grass  at  a  short  distance, 
with  the  Spanish  boy  in  the  saddle  to  watch. 
Sleep,  when  commenced,  was  too  sweet  to  be 
easily  given  up,  and  it  was  half  way  between 
midnight  and  day,  when  the  sleepers  were 
aroused  by  an  estampedo  among  the  horses,  and 
the  calls  of  the  boy.  The  cause  of  the  alarm 
was  soon  found,  not  Indians,  but  white  bears — 
this  valley  being  their  great  resort,  and  the 
place  where  Col.  Fremont  and  thirty-live  of 
his  men  encountered  some  hundred  of  them 
the  summer  before,  killing  thirty  upon  the 
ground. 

"  The  character  of  these  bears  is  well  known, 
and  the  bravest  hunters  do  not  like  to  meet 


312          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

them  without  the  advantage  of  numbers.  On 
discovering  the  enemy,  Col.  Fremont  felt  for 
his  pistols,  but  Don  Jesus  desired  him  to  lie 
still,  saying  that  'people  could  scare  bears;' 
and  immediately  hallooed  at  them  in  Spanish, 
and  they  went  off.  Sleep  went  off  also;  and 
the  recovery  of  the  horses  frightened  by  the 
bears,  building  a  rousing  fire,  making  a  break- 
fast from  the  hospitable  supplies  of  San  Luis 
Obispo,  occupied  the  party  till  daybreak,  when 
the  journey  was  resumed.  Eighty  miles,  and 
the  afternoon  brought  the  party  to  Monterey. 
11  The  next  day,  in  the  afternoon,  the  party 
set  out  on  their  return,  and  the  two  horses  rode 
by  Col.  Fremont  from  San  Luis  Obispo,  being 
a  present  to  him  from  Don  Jesus,  he  (Don 
Jesus)  desired  to  make  an  experiment  of  what 
one  of  them  could  do.  They  were  brothers, 
one  a  grass  younger  than  the  other,  both  of  the 
same  color,  (cinnamon,)  and  hence  called  el 
canalOj  or  los  canalos,  (the  cinnamon  or  the  cin- 
namons.) The  elder  was  to  be  taken  for  the 
trial ;  and  the  journey  commenced  upon  him 
at  leaving  Monterey,  the  afternoon  well  ad* 
vanced.  Thirty  miles  under  the  saddle  done 
that  evening,  and  the  party  stopped  for  the 
night.  In  the  morning,  the  elder  canalo  waa 
under  the  saddle  for  Col.  Fremont,  and 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER    CARSON.  313 

for  ninety  miles  he  carried  him  witluut  a 
change,  and  without  apparent  fatigue.  It  was 
still  thirty  miles  to  San  Luis  Obispo,  whore 
the  night  was  to  be  passed,  and  Don  Jesus  in- 
sisted that  canalo  could  do  it,  and  so  said  the 
horse  by  his  looks  and  action.  But  Col.  Fre- 
mont would  not  put  him  to  the  trial,  and, 
shifting  the  saddle  to  the  younger  brother,  the 
elder  was  turned  loose  to  run  the  remaining 
thirty  miles  without  a  rider.  He  did  so,  im- 
mediately taking  the  lead  and  keeping  it  all 
the  way,  and  entering  San  Luis  in  a  sweeping 
gallop,  nostrils  distended,  snuffing  the  air,  and 
neighing  with  exultation  at  his  return  to  his 
native  pastures;  his  younger  brother  all  the 
time  at  the  head  of  the  horses  under  the 
saddle,  bearing  on  his  bit,  and  held  in  by  his 
rider.  The  whole  eight  horses  made  their  one 
hundred  and  twenty  miles  each  that  day,  (after 
thirty  the  evening  before,)  the  elder  cinnamon 
making  ninety  of  his  under  the  saddle  that 
day,  besides  thirty  under  the  saddle  the 
evening  before;  nor  was  there  the  least  doubt 
that  he  would  have  done  the  whole  distance  in 
the  same  time  if  he  had  continued  under  the 
saddle. 

"  After  a   hospitable  detention   of  another 
half  a  day  at  San  Luis  Obispo,  the  party  set 


314          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   OARSOX. 

out  for  Los  Angelos,  on  the  same  nine  horses 
which  they  had  rode  from  that  place,  and 
made  the  ride  back  in  about  the  same  time 
they  had  made  it  up,  namely,  at  the  rate  of  125 
miles  a  day. 

"On  this  ride,  the  grass  on  the  road  was  the 
food  for  the  horses.  At  Monterey  they  had 
barley ;  but  these  horses,  meaning  those 
trained  and  domesticated,  as  the  cafialos  were, 
eat  almost  anything  of  vegetable  food,  or  even 
drink,  that  their  master  uses,  by  whom  they 
are  petted  and  caressed,  and  rarely  sold. 
Bread,  fruit,  sugar,  coffee,  and  even  wine,  (like 
the  Persian  horses,)  they  take  from  the  hand 
of  their  master,  and  obey  with  like  docility  his 
slightest  intimation.  A  tap  of  the  whip  on  the 
saddle,  springs  them  into  action ;  the  check  of 
a  thread  rein  (on  the  Spanish  bit)  would  stop 
them  :  and  stopping  short  at  speed  they  do  not 
jostle  the  rider  or  throw  him  forward.  They 
leap  on  anything — man,  beast,  or  weapon,  on 
which  their  master  directs  them.  But  this 
description,  so  far  as  conduct  and  behavior  are 
concerned,  of  course  only  applies  to  the  trained 
and  domesticated  horse. 


CHAPTER    XXX. 

DURING  the  autumn  of  1846,  Fremont  had 
had  no  time  to  visit  his  Mariposa  purchase ; 
but  in  the  winter,  while  at  Los  Angelos,  in- 
viting Carson  and  Godey  and  two  of  his  Dela- 
ware Indians,  and  his  constant  attendant  Dob- 
son,  to  take  a  tramp  with  him  for  hunting,  in 
the  time  of  sunny  skies  in  February,  he  ex- 
tended his  hunt  thither,  and  accomplished  the 
discovery  that  he  had  a  well-wooded  and  well- 
watered — for  California  well  watered — tract 
of  land,  of  exceeding  beauty,  clothed,  as  it  was 
at  this  season,  with  a  countless  variety  of  flow- 
ering plants,  these  being  the  grasses  of  tho 
country,  and  seemingly  well  adapted  for  tillage, 
certainly  an  excellent  spot  for  an  immense 
cattle  ranche.  They  killed  deer  and  antelope 
and  smaller  irame,  and  with  the  lasso  captured 
a  score  of  wild  horses  from  a  drove  of  hundreds 

that  fled  at  their  approach;  retiirniiiir  to  Los 

(315) 


316  LIFE   CF    JHMdTCTflKH    CARSON. 

Angel os  viliiin  a  week  from  the  time  of  theii 
departure,  laden  with  the  spoils  of  the  chase. 
]N"or  could  taese  busy  men  refuse  the  kindly 
hospitalities  tendered  them  by  the  old  and 
wealthy  natives  of  Los  Angelos.  We  have 
described  their  style  of  life  as  Carson  had  wit- 
nessed it  in  1828 ;  and  now  at  a  ball  given  by 
Don  Pio  Pico — for  the  fandango  of  the  Mexi- 
can is  a  part  of  his  life,  and  with  all  his  re- 
verses of  fortune  it  must  come  in  for  its  place 
— Carson  and  Fremont  are  of  course  guests, 
and  Lieutenant  Gillespie,  and  some  other  of 
the  American  officers.  As  the  company  was  a 
mixed  one,  we  will  not  attempt  a  description, 
out  quote  from  Bayard  Taylor's  California,  a 
scene  of  a  similar  kind  at  the  close  of  the  Con- 
stitutional Convention,  about  two  years  later, 
when,  with  the  discovery  of  gold,  California 
had  a  population  sufficient  to  demand  a  State 
government,  and  made  one  for  herself,  and 
prepared  to  knock  for  admission  into  the  Union 
of  States.  In  this  Convention  were  the  old 
fathers  of  California,  American  army  officers, 
and  some  more  recent  arrivals ;  and  well  was 
it  for  California  that  the  steps  for  the  organi- 
zation of  her  State  government  w^ere  taken  so 
early,  when  the  fact  of  Mexicans  and  natives 
having  a  claim  was  not  ignored,  as  it  might 


LIFL   OF   CHRISTOPHER    CARSOX.        317 

have  been  at  a  later  da4e  liy  the  rtvkh's«  ad- 
venturers who  throiiLrrd  the  golden  shore. 

But  it  is  only  the  ball  at  the  close  of  the 
Convention  we  propose  to  describe,  at  which 
Col.  .Fremont  and  David  C.  Broderick  were 
present,  as  members  of  the  Convention. 

"  The  morning  Convention  was  short  and  ad- 
journed early  yesterday,  on  account  of  a  ball 
given  by  the  Convention  to  the  citizens  of  Mon- 
terey. The  members,  by  a  contribution  of  £:?."> 
each,  raised  the  sum  of  $1,100  to  provide  for 
the  entertainment,  which  was  got  up  in  re- 
turn for  that  given  by  the  citizens  about  four 
weeks  since. 

"  The  Hall  was  cleared  of  the  forms  and 
tables,  and  decorated  with  young  pines  from 
the  forest.     At  each  end  were  the  American 
colors   tastefully  disposed  across  the  boughs. 
Then    chandeliers,   neither    of   bronze  ov   cut- 
glass,   but  neat  and   brilliant   withal,   j^ured 
their   light   upon   the    festivities.      At    right 
o'clock — the  fashionable  hour  in   Monterey — 
the  guests  began  to  assemble,  and  in  an  1 
afterward  the    Hall   was  crowded  with   n< 
all   the    California!!    and   American    residi 
There  were  sixty  ladies  present,  and  an  e< 
number  of  gentlemen,  in  addition  to  the  men  - 
bers  of  the  Convention     The  dark-eyed  daugl  • 


318          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

ters  of  Monterey,  Los  Angelos,  and  Santa 
Barbara  mingled  in  pleasing  contrast  with  the 
fairer  bloom  of  the  trans-Nevadian  belles. 
The  variety  of  feature  and  complexion  was 
fully  equaled  by  the  variety  of  dress.  In  the 
whirl  of  the  waltz,  a  plain,  dark,  nun-like  robo 
would  be  followed  by  one  of  pink  satin  and 
gauze ;  next,  perhaps,  a  bodice  of  scarlet  velvet, 
with  gold  buttons,  and  then  a  rich  figured  bro- 
cade, such  as  one  sees  on  the  stately  dames  of 
Titian. 

"  The  dresses  of  the  gentlemen  showed  con- 
siderable variety,  but  were  much  less  pictu- 
resque. A  complete  ball-dress  was  a  happi- 
ness attained  only  by  a  fortunate  few,  many 
appearing  in  borrowed  robes. 

"  The  appearance  of  the  company,  neverthe- 
less, was  genteel  and  respectable ;  and  perhaps 
the  genial,  unrestrained  social  spirit,  that  pos- 
sessed all  present,  would  have  been  less,  had 
there  been  more  uniformity  of  costume.  Gen. 
Riley  was  there  in  full  uniform,  with  the  yel- 
low sash  he  wore  at  Contreras ;  Mayors  Canby, 
Hill,  and  Smith,  Captains  Burton,  and  Kane, 
and  the  other  officers  stationed  at  Monterey,  ac- 
companying him.  In  one  group  might  be  seen 
Capt.  Slitter's  soldierly  mustache  and  blue  eye, 
in  another  the  erect  figure  and  quiet,  dignified 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER    CARSON.  3l9 

bearing  of  Gen.  Vallejo  ;  Don  Peblo  cle  la 
Gucrra,  with  his  handsome,  aristocratic  fea- 
tures, was  the  floor  manager,  and  gallantly 
discharged  his  office.  Conspicuous  among  the 
members  were  Don  Miguel  cle  Rodrazena,  and 
Jacinto  Rodriguez,  both  polished  gentlemen 
and  deservedly  popular.  Dominguez,  the  In- 
dian member,  took  no  part  in  the  dance,  but 
evidently  enjoyed  the  scene  as  much  as  any 
one  present.  The  most  interesting  figure  to 
me,  was  that  of  Padre  Remisez,  who,  in  his 
clerical  cassock,  looked  on  until  a  late  hour. 
If  the  strongest  advocate  of  priestly  gravity 
and  decorum  had  been  present,  he  could  not 
have  found  in  his  heart  to  grudge  the  good  old 
padre  the  pleasure  that  beamed  from  his 
honest  countenance. 

"  The  band  consisted  of  two  violins  and  two 
guitars,  whose  music  made  up  in  spirit  what  it 
lacked  in  skill.  They  played,  as  it  seemed  to 
me,  but  three'pieces  alternately,  for  waltz,  con- 
tra-dance,  and  quadrille.  The  latter  dance 
was  evidently  an  unfamiliar  one,  for  once  or 
twice  the  music  ceased  in  the  middle  of  the 
figure.  The  etiquette  of  the  dance  was  marked 
by  that  grave,  stately  courtesy,  which  has  I.HMMI 
handed  down  from  the  old  Spanish  times.  The 
gentlemen  invariably  gave  the  ladies  their 


320          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON 

hand  to  lead  them  to  their  places  on  the  floor ; 
in  the  pauses  of  the  dance  both  parties  stood 
motionless  side  by  side,  and  at  the  conclusion 
the  lady  was  gravely  led  back  to  her  seat. 

"  At  twelve  o'clock  supper  was  announced. 
J  he  Court  room  in  the  lower  story  had  been 
fitted  up  for  the  purpose,  and  as  it  was  not 
large  enough  to  admit  all  the  guests,  the  ladies 
were  first  conducted  thither,  and  waited  upon 
by  a  select  committee.  The  refreshments  con- 
sisted of  turkey,  roast-pig,  oeef,  tongue,  and 
pates,  with  wines  and  liquors  of  various  sorts, 
and  coffee.  A  large  supply  had  been  provided 
but  after  everybody  \vas  served,  there  was  not 
much  remaining.  The  ladies  began  to  leave 
about  two  o'clock,  but  an  hour  later  the  dance 
was  still  going  on  with  spirit." 

The  dance  at  the  home  of  Pico,  was  after 
the  same  fashion — and  similar  to  those  we  have 
mentioned  as  the  constant  amusement  of  the 
people  at  Taos,  where  Carson  resided,  and  in 
all  the  Mexican  cities. 

But  Carson  was  too  valuable  an  aid  to  be 
long  allowed  to  be  idle.  In  March,  1847,  he 
was  ordered  to  be  the  bearer  of  important  dis- 
patches to  the  War  Department  at  Washing- 
ton, and  Lieutenant  Beale  was  directed  to  ac- 
company him  with  dispatches  for  the  Depart 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX.          321 

ment  of  the  Navy.  The  latter  was  still  so 
much  an  invalid  as  to  require  Carson  to  lift 
him  on  and  off  his  horse  for  the  first  twenty 
days  of  the  journey,  but  Carson's  genial  spirits 
and  kindly  care,  with  the  healthful  exercise  of 
horsemanship,  recovered  him  rapidly  ;  and  the 
country  was  so  well  known  to  Carson,  that  they 
avoided  collisions  with  the  Indians  by  eluding 
their  haunts  ;  except  once  upon  the  Gila,  when 
they  were  attacked  in  the  night,  and  a  shower 
of  arrows  sent  among  them  as  they  lay  in 
camp,  from  which  his  men  had  escaped,  being 
injured  by  holding  their  packsaddles  before 
them.  They  stopped  briefly  at  Taos,  and  pur- 
sued their  journey  so  rapidly  that  the  two 
thousand  five  hundred  miles  on  horseback, 
and  the  fifteen  hundred  by  railroad,  were  accom- 
plished in  less  than  three  months. 

The  incidents  of  such  a  journey  had  become 
every-day  scenes  to  Carson,  so  that  their  nar- 
ration would  seem  to  him  a  waste  of  words  on 
the  part  of  his  biographer.  And  yet  the  emo- 
tions with  which  he  witnessed,  for  the  first 
time,  the  monument  of  advancing  civilization 
in  the  Eastern  cities,  and  the  zest  with  which 
he  enjoyed  the  social  comforts  of  the  hospitality 
aflbrded  him  at  the  homes  of  Lieutenant  lk\-ilo 
and  Col.  Benton,  can  be  better  imagined  than 


322          LIFE   OF   CHEISTOPHER    CAESON. 

described.  He  had  taken  but  a  small  supply 
of  provisions  from  Los  Angelos,  lest  it  should 
be  cumbersome  to  him,  and  as  the  road  lay 
often  through  a  country  destitute  of  game,  there 
had  been  fasting  on  the  way,  sometimes  days 
together ;  but  his  party,  which  he  had  selected, 
making  their  ability  to  endure  such  an  enter- 
prise a  leading  quality  of  commendation  to 
him,  bore  all  without  a  murmur ;  stimulated 
by  the  one  impulse,  of  reaching  their  homes  and 
friends,  while  Carson  cared  to  secure  the  appro- 
bation of  those  whom  he  served,  and  the  con- 
sciousness of  having  been  an  honor  to  his 
country. 

Col.  Benton  met  him  at  St.  Louis,  and  reach- 
ing Washington,  Mrs.  Fremont  was  at  the 
depot  to  take  him  to  her's  and  her  father's 
home.  She  waited  for  no  introduction,  but  at 
once  approached  him,  calling  him  by  name,  and 
telling  him  she  should  have  known  him  from 
her  husband's  description.  After  a  brief  tarry 
in  Washington,  a  lion  himself  and  introduced 
to  all  the  lions,  he  departed  with  Lieutenant 
Bcale  for  St.  Louis,  but  business  detained  the 
latter  who  went  later  by  sea ;  while  Carson, 
whom  President  Polk  had  made  a  Lieutenant 
in  the  ^trmy,  with  fifty  troops  under  his  com- 
mand to  take  through  the  Camanche  country, 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.          323 

again  commenced  his  journey  across  the  prai- 
ries, having  a  battle  with  these  Indians  as  was 
expected,  for  they  were  at  war  with  the  whites 

This  did  not  occur,  however,  until  near  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  near  the  place  called  "  Tito 
Point  of  Rocks,"  on  the  Santa  Fe  trail,  which 
place  is  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  dangerous 
in  the  New  Mexican  country,  because  affording 
shelter  for  ambush  at  a  place  where  the  travel 
has  to  pass  a  spur  of  rocky  hills,  at  whose  base 
is  found  the  water  and  camp  ground  travelers 
seek,  and  where  unwritten  history  counts  many 
a  battle. 

Arriving  here,  Carson  foun£  a  company  of 
United  States  volunteers,  and  went  into  camp 
near  them.  Early  in  the  morning  the  animals 
of  the  volunteer  company  were  captured  by  a 
band  of  Indians,  while  the  men  were  taking 
them  to  a  spot  of  fresh  pasture.  The  herders 
were  without  arms,  and  in  the  confusion  the 
cattle  came  into  Carson's  camp,  who,  with  his 
men,  were  ready  with  their  rifles,  and  recap- 
tured the  cattle  from  the  Indians,  but  tho 
horses  of  the  picketing  party  were  successfully 
stampeded. 

Several  of  the  thieves  had  been  mortally 
wounded,  as  the  signs  after  their  departure 
showed,  but  the  Indian  custom  of  tying  the 


324          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

wounded  upon  their  horses,  prevented  taking 
the  Indian's  trophy  of  victory,  the  scalp,  and 
the  object  of  the  Indians  in  their  assaults. 
The  success  of  the  Arab-like  Camanches  is  well 
illustrated  by  this  skirmish,  giving  best  assur- 
ance that  Carson,  who  was  never  surprised  in 
this  whole  journey,  possessed  that  element  of 
caution  so  requisite  in  a  commander  in  such  a 
country. 

Of  the  two  soldiers  whose  turn  it  had  been 
to  stand  guard  this  morning,  it  was  found  that 
one  was  sleeping  when  the  alarm  was  given, 
and  when  it  was  reported  to  Carson,  he  at  once 
administered  the  Chinook  method  of  punish- 
ment— the  dress  of  a  squaw — for  that  day,  and 
resuming  his  journey,  arrived  safely  in  Santa 
Fe,  where  he  left  the  soldiers,  and  hired  sixteen 
men  of  his  own  choosing,  to  make  with  him  the 
remainder  of  the  journey,  as  he  had  been  or- 
dered at  Fort  Leavenworth.  To  his  great  joy, 
his  family  were  here  to  meet  him,  as  he  had 
requested.  Upon  Virgin  River,  he  had  to  com- 
mand the  obedience  of  Indians  who  came  into 
his  camp  and  left  it  tardily,  by  firing  upon 
them,  which  required  some  nerve  and  experi- 
ence in  a  leader  of  so  small  a  party,  while  the 
Indians  numbered  three  hundred  warriors, 
They  arrived  at  Los  Angelos  without  further 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER    CARSON.  323 

incident  than  the  killing  and  eating  of  two 
mules,  to  eke  out  their  scanty  subsistence,  in 
the  destitution  of  game  and  time  to  hunt  it; 
whence  Carson  proceeded  to  Monterey,  to  de- 
liver his  dispatches  at  headquarters,  and  re- 
turned to  the  duty  assigned  him  as  an  acting 
Lieutenant  in  the  United  States  Army,  in  the 
company  of  dragoons  under  Capt.  Smith,  allow- 
ing himself  no  time  to  recruit ;  and  soon  he  was 
sent  with  a  command  of  twenty-five  dragoons, 
to  the  Tejon  Pass,  to  examine  the  papers  and 
cargoes  of  Indians  passing  this  point,  the  route 
which  most  of  the  Indian  depredators  took  in 
passing  in  and  out  of  California ;  and  here  ho 
did  much  good  service  during  the  winter. 

In  the  spring  he  again  went  overland  to 
Washington  with  dispatches,  meeting  no  serious 
difficulty  till  he  came  to  the  Grand  River,  where 
in  the  time  of  spring  flood  he  was  obliged  to 
construct  a  raft,  and  the  second  load  over  was 
swamped,  the  men  barely  saving  their  lives, 
which  rendered  his  party  destitute  of  comforts 
in  their  onward  journey,  but  arriving  at  Taos 
he  stopped  with  his  family,  and  at  his  own 
hnnie  gave  his  men  a  few  days  to  recruit,  and 
himself  the  luxury  of  intercourse  with  his 
family  and  friends,  which  no  one  enjoys  more 
than  Christopher  Carson. 


326  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

They  had  encountered  several  hundred  In- 
dians of  the  Apaches  and  Utahs,  whom  Carson 
told  he  had  nothing  to  give,  and  upon  whom 
the  appearance  of  his  men  gave  assurance  they 
would  make  little  by  attacking.  At  Santa  Fe, 
Carson  learned  that  his  appointment  as  Lieu- 
tenant by  the  President  had  not  been  confirmed 
by  the  Senate,  and  his  friends  advised  him  not 
to  carry  the  dispatches  any  further ;  but  Carson 
was  not  to  be  deterred  from  doing  his  duty  be- 
cause the  honor  he  deserved  was  not  accorded 
to  him,  saying  that  "  as  he  had  been  selected 
for  an  important  trust,  he  should  do  his  best  to 
fulfill  it,  if  it  cost  him  his  life ;"  and  he  proceeded 
to  Washington,  feeling  that  if  ill-usage  had 
reached  him  in  connection  with  Fremont,  to 
whom  he  had  been  of  so  much  service,  it  was 
no  more  than  he  might  have  expected ;  as, 
for  many  months  past,  political  considerations 
and* rivalries  had  been  seen~~by  him  to  govern 
the  actions  of  certain  men,  instead  of  a  care  for 
the  best  interests  of  the  country.  He  had  seen 
men  in  command  of  troops  in  the  prairies  who 
had  the  least  possible  knowledge  of  the  country, 
and  especially  of  Indian  warfare.  He  would 
have  advised  that  frortier  men  be  chosen  for 
such  appointments,  rather  than  those  simply 
educated  in  the  schools  and  entirely  unaccus- 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  327 

to  endure  privations,  but  if  others  ne- 
glected the  wiser  course,  that  was  no  reason 
why  he  should  not  do  his  duty. 

Learning  that  the  Camanches  were  up^n  the 
Santa  Fe  road,  several  hundred  strong,  he  re- 
duced his  escort  to  ten  choice  mountain  men, 
and  determined  upon  making  a  trail  of  his  own 
returned  to  Taos,  and  struck  over  to  the  head- 
waters of  the  Platte,  and  past  Fort  Kearney  to 
Leavenworth,  where  he  left  his  escort  and  pro- 
ceeded alone  to  Washington,  and  delivering  his 
dispatches  as  directed,  returned  immediately  to 
Leavenworth,  and  thence  to  Taos,  where  he  ar- 
rived in  October;  and  was  again  at  home  and 
free  from  the  burdens  and  responsibilities  of 
public  life,  with  the  settled  purpose  of  making 
a  protracted  stay,  and  providing  himself  with  a 
permanent  home. 

Perhaps  there  is  no  tribe  of  Indians  besides 
the  Seminoles  in  Florida,  that  have  given  the 
United  States  more  trouble  than  the  Apaches, 
in  the  time  that  we  have  held  the  claim  of  their 
country ;  and  the  best  proof  of  their  bravery 
may  be  found  in  the  fact  that. the  warriors 
nearly  all  die  in  battle.  Living  in  a  country 
as  healthy  as  any  in  the  world,  and  constantly 
occupied  in  hunting  buffalo,  or  Mexicans  and 
whites,  with  whom  they  are  at  war,  thev  are 


328          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOIT. 

exceedingly  regardful  of  their  national  honor, 
and  as  their  mountain  retreats  are  almost  in- 
accessible, they  have  the  advantage  of  regular 
troops,  and  almost  of  old  mountaineers,  only 
as  the  latter  can  equal  them  in  numbers. 

Col.  Beale  was  occupying  this  department  at 
the  time  of  which  we  write,  and  engaged  in  an 
effort  to  chastise  the  Apaches  under  Clico  Ve- 
lasquez, their  exceedingly  blood-thirsty  and 
cruel  chief,  whose  habit  was  to  adorn  his  dress 
with  the  finger  bones  of  the  victims  he  had 
slaughtered.  Col.  Beale  took  charge  of  the 
command  himself,  and  employed  Carson  as  his 
guide.  They  crossed  snow  mountains  to  search 
for  the  Indians,  and  returning  came  upon  a 
village,  which  they  attacked,  and  captured  a 
large  amount  of  goods  and  two  of  the  chiefs  of 
the  tribe,  with  whom  Col.  Beale  had  a  long 
talk,  and  then  dismissed  to  return  to  their 
tribe,  hoping  thus  to  convince  them  of  the  mag- 
nanimity of  the  United  States  Government, 
\vhen  the  command  returned  to  Taos  to  recruit 
his  troops. 

Meantime .  Carson  entertained,  at  his  own 
home  in  Taos,  Fremont  and  his  party  of  suffer- 
ing explorers,  who  were  making  a  winter  survey 
of  a  pass  for  a  road  to  California,  and  by  taking 
a  difficult  mountain  pass,  had  lost  all  their 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX.          329 

mules  and  several  of  their  party.  Science  is 
not  all  that  is  needed  for  such  undertakings, 
and  as  labor  and  learning  should  act  in  co- 
partnership, to  be  most  effective,  so  theoretic 
and  practical  skill  should  be  associated  in  any 
effort  of  difficulty,  as  this  trip  of  Col.  Fremont, 
without  an  experienced  mountaineer  for  a 
guide,  proved  to  him  and  his  men,  some  of 
whom  had  fed  upon  the  others  who  bad 
starved. 


CHAPTER   XXXI. 

IN  the  last  chapter,  we  left  Fremont  in  the 
hospitable  mansion  of  his  old  and  tried  friend 
Carson,  after  one  of  the  most  extraordinary 
journeys  ever  performed  by  any  man  who  sur- 
vived to  tell  its  horrors ;  and  as  the  names  of 
Carson  and  Fremont  are  inseparably  cemented 
in  history,  as  in  friendship,  and  as  the  former 
had  often  endured  sufferings  almost  as  great 
as  those  of  his  old  commander  and  friend,  we 
shall  be  pardoned  if  we  allude  to  this  journey 
at  some  length.  There  is  no  earthly  doubt 
that  had  Carson  been  the  guide,  many  valuable 
lives  of  noble,  glorious  men  might  have  been 
spared,  and  sufferings  on  the  part  of  those 
who  survived  this  disastrous  expedition,  almost 
UK)  horrible  for  belief,  avoided. 

Col.  Fremont,  in  a  letter  written  to  his  wife 
from  Taos,  the  day  after  his  arrival  there  in  a 
famishing  condition,  and  having  lost  one  full 

third  of  his  party  by  absolute  starvation  and 

(330 j  J     J 


LIFE   Of    CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  3*31 

,  mentions  that  at  Pueblo  he  engaged 
as  ft  guide,  an  old  trapper  of  twenty-five  years. 
experience,  named  "  Bill  Williams,"  and  ho 
frankly  admits  that  the  "error  of  his  journey 
was  committed  in  engaging  this  man." 

In  narrating  some  of  the  incidents  of  this 
terribly  disastrous  journey,  we  shall  use,  of 
course,  the  language  of  those  best  qualified  to 
depict  its  horrors,  i.  e.,  Col.  Fremont,  and 
Mr.  Carvalho,  a  gentleman  of  Baltimore,  who 
accompanied  the  expedition  as  daguerreotypist 
and  artist. 

Col.  Fremont,  in  his  letter  to  his  wife,  treats 
of  the  subject  generally,  but  when  we  quote 
from  the  narrative  of  Mr.  Carvalho,  we  think 
our  readers  will  admit  that  such  a  record  of 
human  suffering,  and  human  endurance,  added 
to  such  an  exhibition  of  moral  and  physical 
courage,  has  never  been  paralleled. 

Col.  Fremont  writes,  (speaking  first  of  Wil- 
liams the  guide,) 

"He  proved  never  to  have  in  the  least 
known,  or  entirely  to  have  forgotten,  the  whole 
region  of  country  through  which  we  were  to 
pass.  We  occupied  more  than  half  a  month 
in  making  the  journey  of  a  few  days,  blunder- 
ing a  tortuous  way  through  deep  SP.OW  which 
already  began  to  choke  up  the  passes,  for 


332          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

which  we  were  obliged  to  waste  time  in  search- 
ing. About  the  llth  December  we  found 
ourselves  at  the  North  of  the  Del  Norte  Canon, 
where  that  river  issues  from  the  St.  John's 
Mountain,  one  of  the  highest,  most  rugged 
and  impracticable  of  all  the  Rocky  Mountain 
ranges,  inaccessible  to  trappers  and  hunters 
even  in  the  summer  time. 

"  Across  the  point  of  this  elevated  range  our 
guide  conducted  us,  and  having  still  great  con- 
fidence in  his  knowledge,  we  pressed  onwards 
with  fatal  resolution.  Even  along  the  river 
bottoms  the  snow  was  already  belly  deep  for 
the  mules,  frequently  snowing  in  the  valley 
and  almost  constantly  in  the  mountains.  The 
cold  was  extraordinary ;  at  the  warmest  hours 
of  the  day  (between  one  and  two)  the  ther- 
mometer (Fahrenheit)  standing  in  the  shade 
of  only  a  tree  trunk  at  zero ;  the  day  sun- 
shiny, with  a  moderate  breeze.  We  pressed 
np  towards  the  summit,  the  snow  deepening ; 
and  in  four  or  five  days  reached  the  naked 
ridges  which  lie  above  the  timbered  country, 
and  which  form  the  dividing  grounds  between 
the  waters  of  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  oceans, 

u  Along  these  naked  ridges  it  storms  nearly 
all  winter,  and  the  winds  sweep  across  them 
with  remorseless  fury.  On  our  first  attempt 


LIFE   OF   CEHIUSTOPHER   CARSOtf.        333 

to  cross  we  encountered  a  ponder  i£  (dry  snow 
driven  thick  through  the  air  by  violent  wind, 
and  in  which  objects  are  visible  only  at  a  short 
distance,)  and  were  driven  back,  having  some 
ten  or  twelve  men  variously  frozen,  face,  hands, 
or  feet.  The  guide  became  nigh  being  frozen 
tc  death  here,  and  dead  mules  were  already 
lying  about  the  fires.  Meantime,  it  snowed 
steadily.  The  next  day  we  made  mauls,  and 
beating  a  road  or  trench  through  the  snu\v, 
crossed  the  crest  in  defiance  of  the  pouderie, 
and  encamped  immediately  below  in  the  edge 
of  the  timber. 

"  Westward,  the  country  was  buried  in  deep 
snow.  It  was  impossible  to  advance,  and  to 
turn  back  was  equally  impracticable.  We 
were  overtaken  by  sudden  and  inevitable  ruin, 
and  it  was  instantly  apparent  that  we  should 
lose  every  animal. 

"  I  determined  to  recross  the  mountain  more 
towards  the  open  country,  and  haul  or  pack 
the  baggage  (by  men)  down  to  the  Del  Norte. 
With  great  labor  the  baggage  was  transported 
across  the  crest  to  the  head  springs  of  a  little 
stream  leading  to  the  main  river.  A  few  days 
were  sufficient  to  destroy  our  fine  band  of 
mules.  They  generally  kept  huddled  together, 
and  as  they  froze,  one  would  be  seen  to  tumblo 


334          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

down,  and  the  snow  would  co\er  him;  some- 
times they  would  break  off  and  rush  down 
towards  the  timber  until  they  were  stopped  by 
the  deep  snow,  where  they  were  soon  bidder, 
by  the  ponder ie. 

"The  courage  of  the  men  failed  fast;  in 
fact,  I  have  never  seen  men  so  soon  discouraged 
by  misfortune  as  we  were  on  this  occasion; 
but,  as  you  know,  the  party  was  not  consti 
tuted  like  the  former  ones.  But  among  those 
who  deserve  to  be  honorably  mentioned,  and 
who  behaved  like  what  they  were — men  of  the 
old  exploring  party, — were  Godey,  King,  and 
Taplin  ;  and  first  of  all  Godey. 

"  In  this  situation,  I  determined  to  send  in  a 
party  to  the  Spanish  settlements  of  New 
Mexico  for  provisions  and  mules  to  transport 
our  baggage  to  Taos.  With  economy,  and 
after  we  should  leave  the  mules,  we  had  not 
two  weeks'  provisions  in  the  camp.  These 
consisted  of  a  store  which  I  had  reserved  for  a 
hard  day,  macaroni  and  bacon.  From  among 
the  volunteers  I  chose  King,  Brackenridge, 
Creutzfeldt,  and  the  guide  Williams ;  the  party 
under  the  command  of  King.  In  case  of  tha 
least  delay  at  the  settlements,  he  was  to  send 
une  an  express. 

Day  alter  day  passed  by,  and  no  news  from 


LIFE   OF   CTIRISTOPJIF.il   CARSOiN".  335 

our  express  party.  Snow  continued  to  fall 
almost  incessantly  on  the  mountain.  The 
spirits  of  the  camp  grew  lower.  Prone  laid 
down  in  the  trail  and  froze  to  death.  In  a  sun- 
shiny day,  and  having  with  him  means  to  make 
a  fire,  he  threw  his  blankets  down  in  the  trail 
and  laid  there  till  he  froze  to  death.  After 
sixteen  days  had  elapsed  from  King's  depart- 
ure, I  became  so  uneasy  at  the  delay  that  I 
decided  to  wait  no  longer.  I  was  aware  that 
our  troops  had  been  engaged  in  hostilities  with 
the  Spanish  Utahs  and  Apaches,  who  range  in 
the  North  River  valley,  and  became  fearful 
that  they  (King's  party)  had  been  cut  off  by 
these  Indians ;  I  could  imagine  no  other  acci- 
dent. Leaving  the  camp  employed  with  the 
baggage  and  in  charge  of  Mr.  Vincenthaler,  I 
started  down  the  river  with  a  small  party  con 
sisting  of  Godey,  (with  his  young  nephew,)  Mr. 
Prcuss  and  Saunders.  We  carried  our  arms 
and  provision  for  two  or  three  days.  In  tho 
camp  the  messes  had  provisions  for  two  or 
three  meals,  more  or  less ;  and  about  five 
pounds  of  sugar  to  each  man.  Failing  to  meet 
King,  my  intention  was  to  make  the  Red  River 
settlement  about  twenty-five  miles  north  of 
Taos,  and  send  back  the  speediest  relief  possi- 
ble. My  instructions  to  the  camp  were,  that 


336  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

if  thry  did  not  hear  from  me  within  a  stated 
lime,  they  were  to  follow  down  the  Del  Nortc. 

"A  bout  sunset  on  the  sixth  day,  we  discov- 
ered a  little  smoke,  in  a  grove  of  timber  off 
from  the  river,  and  thinking  perhaps  it  might 
be  our  express  party  on  its  return,  we  A\ent  to 
sec.  This  was  the  twenty-second  day  since 
they  had  left  us,  and  the  sixth  since  wre  had 
left  the  camp.  We  found  them — three  of 
them — Creutzfeldt,  Brackenridge,  and  Wil- 
liams— the  most  miserable  objects  I  have  ever 
seen.  1  did  not  recognize  Creutzfeldt's  features 
when  Brackenridge  brought  him  up  to  me  and 
mentioned  his  name.  They  had  been  starving. 
King  had  starved  to  death  a  few  days  before. 
His  remains  were  some  six  or  eight  miles 
above,  near  the  river.  By  aid  of  the  horses, 
we  carried  these  three  men  with  us  to  Red 
River  settlement,  which  we  reached  (Jan.  20,) 
on  the  tenth  evening  after  leaving  our  camp  in 
the  mountains,  having  traveled  through  snow 
and  on  foot  one  hundred  and  sixty  miles. 

"  The  morning  after  reaching  the  Red  River 
town,  Godey  and  myself  rode  on  to  the  Rio 
Hondo  and  Taos,  in  search  of  animals  and 
supplies,  and  on  the  second  evening  after  that 
on  which  we  had  reached  Red  River,  Godey 
had  returned  to  that  place  with  about  thirty 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON".          337 

animals,  provisions,  and  four  Mexicans,  with 
which  he  set  out  for  the  camp  on  the  following 
morning. 

"  You  will  remember  that  I  had  left  the 
camp  with  occupation  sufficient  to  employ 
them  for  three  or  four  days,  after  which  they 
were  to  follow  me  down  the  river.  Within 
that  time  I  had  expected  the  relief  from  King, 
if  it  was  to  come  at  all. 

"  They  remained  where  I  had  left  them  seven 
days,  and  then  started  clown  the  river.  Manuel 
— you  will  remember  Manuel,  the  Cosumne 
Indian — gave  way  to  a  feeling  of  despair  after 
they  had  traveled  about  two  miles,  begged 
Haler  to  shoot  him,  and  then  turned  and  made 
his  way  back  to  the  camp ;  intending  to  die 
there,  as  he  doubtless  soon  did.  They  followed 
our  trail  down  the  river — twenty-two  men  they 
tvere  in  all.  About  ten  miles  below  the  camp, 
Wise  gave  out,  threw  away  his  gun  and 
blanket,  and  a  few  hundred  yards  further  fell 
over  into  the  snow  and  died.  Two  Indian 
boys,  young  men,  countrymen  of  Manuel,  were 
behind.  They  rolled  up  Wise  in  his  blanket, 
and  buried  him  in  the  snow  on  the  river  bank. 
N"o  more  died  that  day — none  the  next.  Carver 
raved  during  the  night,  his  imagination  wholly 
occupied  with  images  of  many  things  which  ho 
22 


338          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON, 

fancied  himself  eating.  In  the  morning,  lie 
wandered  off  from  the  party,  and  probably 
soon  died.  They  did  not  see  him  again. 

"Sorel  on  this  day  gave  out,  and  laid  down 
to  die.  They  built  him  a  fire,  and  Morin,  who 
was  in  a  dying  condition,  and  snow-blind,  re- 
mained. These  two  did  not  probably  last  till 
the  next  morning.  That  evening,  I  think,  Hub- 
bard  killed  a  deer.  They  traveled  on,  getting 
here  and  there  a  grouse,  but  probably  nothing 
else,  the  snow  having  frightened  off  the  game. 
Things  were  desperate,  and  brought  Haler  to 
the  determination  of  breaking  up  the  party,  in 
order  to  prevent  them  from  living  upon  each 
other.  He  told  them  '  that  he  had  done  all  he 
could  for  them,  that  they  had  no  other  hope 
remaining  than  the  expected  relief,  and  that 
their  best  plan  was  to  scatter  and  make  the 
best  of  their  way  in  small  parties  down  the 
river.  That,  for  his  part,  if  he  was  to  be  eaten, 
he  would,  at  all  events,  be  found  traveling 
when  he  did  die.'  They  accordingly  separated. 

"  With  Mr.  Haler  continued  five  others  and 
the  two  Indian  boys.  Rohrer  now  became 
very  despondent;  Haler  encouraged  him  by 
recalling  to  mind  his  family,  and  urged  him  to 
hold  out  a  little  longer.  On  this  day  he  fell 
behind,  but  promised  to  overtake  them  at 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER    CAKSOX.  339 

evening.  Haler,  Scott,  Hubbard,  and  Martin 
agreed  that  if  any  one  of  them  should  give 
out,  the  others  were  not  to  wait  for  him  to  die, 
but  build  a  fire  for  him,  and  push  on.  At 
night,  Kern's  mess  encamped  a  few  hundred 
yards  from  Haler's,  with  the  intention,  accord- 
ing to  Taplin,  to  remain  where  they  were  until 
the  relief  should  come,  and  in  the  meantime  to 
live  upon  those  who  had  died,  and  upon  the 
weaker  ones  as  they  should  die.  With  the 
three  Kerns  were  Cathcart,  Andrews,  McKie, 
Stepperfeldt,  and  Taplin. 

« Ferguson  and  Beadle  had  remained  to- 
gether behind.  In  the  evening,  Rohrer  camo 
up  and  remained  with  Kern's  mess.  Mr.  Haler 
learned  afterwards  from  that  mess  that  Rohrer 
and  Andrews  wandered  off  the  next  day  and 
died.  They  say  they  saw  their  bodies.  In  the 
morning  Haler's  party  continued  on.  After  a 
few  hours,  Hubbard  gave  out.  They  built 
him  a  fire,  gathered  him  some  wood,  and  left 
him,  without,  as  Haler  says,  turning  their 
heads  to  look  at  him  as  they  went  off.  About 
two  miles  further,  Scott — you  remember  Scott 
— who  used  to  shoot  birds  for  you  at  the  fron- 
tier—u-ave  out.  They  did  the -same  for  him  as 
for  Iluhbard,  and  continued  on.  In  th^  ni 
noon,  the  Indian  boys  went  ahead,  and  before 


340  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

nightfall  met  Godey  with  the  relief.  Haler 
heard  and  knew  the  guns  which  he  fired  for 
him  at  night,  and  starting  early  in  the  morn- 
ing, soon  met  him.  *  I  hear  that  they  all  cried 
together  like  children.  Haler  turned  back 
with  Godey,  and  went  with  him  to  where  they 
had  left  Scott.  He  was  still  alive,  and  was 
saved.  Hubbard  was  dead — still  warm.  From 
Kern's  mess  they  learned  the  death  of  An- 
drews and  Rohrer,  and  a  little  above,  met 
Ferguson,  wrho  told  them  that  Beadle  had  died 
the  night  before." 

Such  is  a  portion  of  the  brief,  but  thrilling 
narrative  of  this  extraordinary  and  disastrous 
journey,  as  detailed  in  a  familiar  letter  by 
Col.  Fremont  to  his  wife ;  but  Mr.  Carvalho 
gives  in  detail  some  of  the  particulars  of  the 
horrors  which  overtook  them,  all  through  the 
unfortunate  er/or  of  engaging  as  guide,  a  man 
who  either  knew  nothing,  or  had  forgotten  all 
he  had  ever  known,  of  the  localities  which  tho 
party  designed  and  hoped  to  reach. 


CHAlTJ&B,    XXXII. 

WE  quote  now  from  the  closing  part  of  Mr. 
Carvalho's  narrative : 

"  At  last  we  are  drawn  to  the  necessity  of 
killing  our  brave  horses  for  food.  To-day  the 
first  sacrifice  was  made.  It  was  with  us  all  a 
solemn  event,  rendered  far  more  solemn  how- 
ever by  the  impressive  scene  which  followed. 
Col.  Fremont  came  out  to  us,  and  after  refer- 
ring to  the  dreadful  necessities  to  which  his 
men  had  been  reduced  on  a  previous  expedi- 
tion, of  eating  each  other,  he  begged  us  to 
swear  that  in  no  extremity  of  hunger,  would 
any  of  his  men  lift  his  hand  against,  or  at- 
tempt to  prey  upon  a  comrade ;  sooner  let  him 
die  with  them  than  live  upon  them.  They  all 
promptly  took  the  oath,  and  threatened  to 
shoot  the  first  one  that  hinted  or  proposed 
such  a  thing. 

"  It  was  a  most  impressive  scene,  to  witness 
twenty-two  men  on  a  snowy  mountain,  with 

bare  heads,  and  hands  and  eyes  upraised  to 

(341) 


342         LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

heaven,  uttering  the  solemn  vow,  (  So  help  mo 
God !' — and  the  valley  echoed,  i  So  help  me 
God!'  I  never,  until  that  moment,  realized 
the  awful  situation  in  which  I  was  placed.  I 
remembered  the  words  of  the  Psalmist,  and 
felt  perfectly  assured  of  my  final  safety.  They 
wandered  in  the  wilderness  in  a  solitary  way ; 
they  found  no  city  to  dwell  in.  Hungry  and 
thirsty  their  soul  fainteth  within  them,  and  they 
cried  unto  the  Lord  in  their  trouble,  and  he  deliv- 
ered them  out  of  their  distresses. 

******* 

"  When  an  animal  gave  out,  he  was  shot  down 
by  the  Indians,  who  immediately  cut  his 
throat,  and  saved  all  the  blood  in  our  camp 
kettle.  This  animal  was  divided  into  twenty- 
two-parts.  Two  parts  for  Col.  Fremont  and 
his  cook,  ten  parts  for  the  white  camp,  and  ten 
parts  for  the  Indians.  Col.  Fremont  hitherto 
messed  with  his  officers ;  at  this  time  he  re- 
quested that  they  would  excuse  him,  as  it  gave 
Jiirn  pain,  and  called  to  mind  the  horrible 
scenes  which  had  been  enacted  during  his  last 
expedition — he  could  not  see  his  officers  obliged 
to  partake  of  such  disgusting  food. 

"  The  rule  he  adopted  was  that  one  animal 
should  serve  for  six  meals  for  the  whole  party. 
If  one  gave  out  in  the  meantime,  of  course  it 


LIFE  OF   CHRISTOPHER    CARSOX.  343 

an  exception  ;  but  otherwise,  on  no  consid- 
eration was  an  animal  to  be  slaughtered,  for 
every  one  that  was  killed,  placed  a  man  on 
foot,  and  limited  our  chances  of  escape  from 
our  present  situation.  If  the  men  chose  to  cat 
up  their  six  meals  all  in  one  day,  they  would 
have  to  go  ^vithout  until  the  time  arrived  for 
killing  another.  It  frequently  happened  that 
the  white  camp  was  without  food  from  twenty- 
four  to  thirty-six  hours,  while  Col.  Fremont 
and  the  Delawares  always  had  a  meal.  The 
latter  religiously  abstained  from  encroaching 
on  the  portion  allotted  for  another  meal,  while 
many  men  of  our  camp,  I  may  say  all  of  them, 
not  content  with  their  portion,  would,  to  satisfy 
the  cravings  of  hunger,  surreptitiously  purloin 
from  their  pile  of  meat,  at  different  times, 
sundry  pieces,  thus  depriving  themselves  of 
each  other's  allowance.  My  own  sense  of  right 
was  so  subdued  by  the  sufferings  I  endured  by 
hunger,  and- walking  almost  barefooted  through 
the  snow,  that  while  going  to  guard  one  night, 
I  stole  a  piece  of  frozen  horse  liver,  ate  it  raw, 
and  thought  it,  at  the  time,  the  most  delicious 
morsel  I  ever  tasted. 

"The  entrails  of  the  horse  were  'well 
shaken'  (for  we  had  no  water  to  wash  them 
in)  and  boiled  with  snow,  producing  a  highly 


344          LIFE   or   CHRISTOPHER 

flavored  soup,  which  the  men  considered  so 
valuable  and  delicious  that  they  forbade  the 
cook  to  skim  the  pot  for  fear  any  portion  of  it 
might  be  lost.  The  hide  was  divided  into 
equal  portions,  and  with  the  bones  roasted  and 
burnt  to  a  crisp.  This  we  munched  on  the 
road ;  but  the  men  not  being  satisfied  with  the 
division  of  the  meat  by  the  cook,  made  him 
turn  his  back,  while  another  took  up  each 
share  separately,  and  enquired  who  should 
have  it.  When  the  snows  admitted  it,  we  col- 
lected the  thick  leaves  of  a  species  of  cactus 
which  we  also  put  in  the  fire  to  burn  off  the 
prickles,  and  ate.  It  then  resembled  in  taste 
and  nourishment  an  Irish  potato  peeling.  We 
lived  in  this  way  for  nearly  fifty  days,  traveling 
from  Grand  River  across  the  divide  to  Green 
River,  and  over  the  first  range  of  the  Wahsach 
Mountains,  on  foot,  Col.  Fremont  at  our  head, 
tramping  a  pathway  for  his  men  to  follow.  He, 
as  well  as  the  rest  of  the  party,  towards  the 
last  was  entirely  barefoot — some  of  them  had 
a  piece  of  raw  hide  on  their  feet,  which,  how- 
ever, becoming  hard  and  stiff  by  the  frost, 
made  them  more  uncomfortable  than  walking 
without  any. 

"  Yesterday,  Mr.  Oliver  Fuller,  of  St.  Louis, 
ftrho  had  been  on  foot  for  som^  weeks,  suddenly 


LIFE   OF   CiriUSTOniER   CARSON.  345 

gn  re  out.  Our  engineers  and  myself  were  with 
•him*  He  found  himself  unable  to  proceed — 
the  snow  was  very  deep,  and  his  feet  were 
badly  frozen.  He  insisted  that  we  should  leave 
him,  and  hasten  to  camp  for  relief;  not  being 
able  to  render  him  any  assistance  by  remain- 
ing, we  wrapped  his  blankets  around  him  and 
left  him  on  the  trail.  In  vain  we  searched  for 
material  to  build  him  a  fire — nothing  was 
visible  but  a  wild  waste  of  snow  ;  we  were  also 
badly  crippled,  and  we  did  not  arrive  in  camp 
until  ten  o'clock  at  night,  at  which  time  it  began 
snowing  furiously.  We  told  Col.  Fremont  of 
Mr.  Fuller's  situation,  when  he  sent  a  Mexican 
named  Frank,  with  the  two  best  animals  and 
cooked  horsemeat,  to  bring  Mr.  Fuller  in. 
There  was  not  a  dry  eye  in  the  whole  camp 
that  night — the  men  sat  up  anxiously  awaiting 
the  return  of  our  companions. 

"  At  daylight,  they  being  still  out,  Col  Fre- 
mont sent  three  Delawares  mounted,  to  look 
for  them.  About  ten  o'clock  one  of  them  re- 
turned with  the  Mexican  and  two  mules, 
Frank  was  badly  frozen,  he  had  lost  the  track, 
and  bewildered  and  cold,  he  sank  down  hold- 
ing on  to  the  animals,  where  he  was  found  by 
the  Delaware  during  the  afternoon.  The  two 
Delawares  supporting  Mr.  Fuller  were 


346  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   GARSOff. 

approaching.  He  was  found  awake,  but  almost 
dead  from  the  cold  and  faintness.  Col.  Fre- 
mont personally  rendered  him  all  the  assist- 
ance in  his  power.  So  did  all  of  us — for  he 
was  beloved  and  respected  by  the  whole  camp 
for  his  gentlemanly  behavior  and  his  many 
virtues.  Col.  Fremont  remained  at  this  dreary 
place  near  three  days,  to  allow  poor  Fuller 
time  to  recruit — and  afterwards  assigned  to 
him  the  best  mule  to  carry  him,  while  two  of 
the  men  walked  on  either  side  to  support  him. 
A  portion  of  our  scanty  food  was  appropriated 
at  every  meal  from  each  man's  portion  to  make 
Mr.  Fuller's  larger,  as  he  required  sustenance 
more  than  they  did. 

"  On  the  7th  February,  almost  in  sight  of 
succor,  the  Almighty  took  him  to  himself:  he 
died  on  horseback — his  two  companions 
wrapped  him  in  his  India  rubber  blanket  and 
laid  him  across  the  trail.  We  arrived  next 
day  at  Parawan.  After  the  men  had  rested  a 
little,  we  went  in  company  with  three  or  four 
of  the  inhabitants  of  Parawan,  to  bury  our 
deceased  friend.  His  remains  had  not  been 
disturbed  during  our  absence." 

In  the  month  of  February,  and  soon  after 
Fremont's  arrival  and  departure,  Col.  Beale 
again  solicited  Carson  to  be  his  guide  while  he 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   UAESOff.          347 

paid  a  visit  to  a  large  village  of  Indians  con- 
gregated on  the  Arkansas,  for  the  purpose  of 
carrying  out  a  stipulation  of  the  treaty  with 
Mexico,  that  the  captives  the  Indians  retained 
in  the  territory  ceded  to  the  United  States, 
should  be  returned  to  Mexico.  He  found  four 
tribes  congregated,  to  the  number  of  two  thou- 
sand,  for  the  purpose  of  meeting  their  agent, 
an  experienced  mountaineer,  who  informed 
Col.  Beale  that  it  would  be  useless  to  attempt 
to  enforce  the  provisions  of  the  treaty  here, 
especially  when  so  many  Indians  were  together, 
and  succeeded  in  persuading  him  to  desist  from 
the  use  of  force  against  them. 

These  Indians  had  been  accustomed  to  deal- 
ing with  poorly  clad  Mexican  soldiers,  and  the 
sight  and  bearing  of  Col.  Beale  and  Carson  and 
the  men  under  their  command,  must  have  in- 
duced a  respect  for  the  government  they  repre- 
sented, so  that  they  did  not  consider  the  expe- 
dition as  without  good  result. 

The  Camanche  Indians  could  not  well  have 
been  induced  to  fulfill  the  provisions  of  the 
treaty  with  Mexico,  especially  as  they  were  not 
a  party  to  it,  for  in  the  very  many  years  past, 
it  had  been  their  custom  to  make  incursions 
upon  the  Mexican  settlements  and  parties  of 
travelers,  and  to  capture  their  cattle  and  take 


348          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

their  goods,  besides  bringing  away  as  many 
children  as  possible,  in  order  that  the  girls  pro- 
cured  in  this  way  should,  when  grown,  marry 
the  braves  of  the  tribe ;  till  now  at  least  a  third 
of  the  blood  of  the  tribe  was  Mexican.  This 
amalgamation  had  become  more  extensive  in 
this  than  in  any  of  the  other  New  Mexican 
tribes. 

The  Apache  is  smaller  in  stature  and  more 
closely  built  than  the  Camanche ;  less  skilled 
in  horsemanship,  but  equally  brave,  with 
beautiful  symmetry  of  form,  and  "  muscles  as 
hard  as  iron,"  with  an  elasticity  of  movement 
that  shows  a  great  amount  of  physical  train- 
ing, and  an  eye  that  reveals  the  treachery  of 
their  character. 


CHAPTER  XXXtll, 

ARRIVING  again  in  Taos,  to  carry  ihk>  effect 
at  once,  the  resolution  he  had  formed  of  estab- 
lishing for  himself  a  permanent  home,  ho 
joined  his  old  friend  Maxwell  in  the  purpose 
of  occupying  a  beautifully  romantic  mountain 
valley,  fifty  miles  east  of  Taos,  called  by  the 
Indians  Rayedo,  which  would  long  since  have 
been  settled  by  the  Mexicans,  only  it  was  very 
much  exposed  to  Indian  depredations. 

Through  the  centre  of  this  valley  flows  a 
broad  mountain  stream,  and,  for  the  loveliness 
of  the  scenery,  or  the  fertility  of  its  broad, 
sloping  basin,  or  the  mountain  supply  of  tim- 
ber, there  can  scarcely  be  found  a  spot  to  equal 
it.  Carson  and  Maxwell  established  a  settle- 
ment about  mid-way  in  the  valley  ;  and  at  the 
present  date,  have  an  imposing  little  village, 
in  which  the  houses  of  Carson  and  Maxwell 

are  prominent  by  reason  of  their  greater  di- 

(349) 


350          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

mensions,  and  indicate  to  the  trader  a  style 
of  plenteous  comfort,  which,  while  it  might 
offend  the  pale-faced  denizen  of  our  most  fash- 
ionable thoroughfares,  the  traveler,  who  has 
learned  to  love  nature  and  health,  gazes  upon 
with  pleasure,  and  gladly  tarries  to  enjoy  the 
patriarchal  hospitality,  and  the  sumptuous, 
almost  regal  luxury  of  their  hunter  occupants, 
who  "count  their  horses  and  their  cattle  by 
the  hundreds,"  and  whose  thousand  sheep  are 
on  the  hills ;  whose  larder  is  replenished  from 
the  still  countless  herds  of  prairie  oxen  which 
roam  through  those  magnificent  plains,  and 
the  lesser  bands  of  speed- defy  ing,  beauteous 
quadrupeds  of  the  hills,  and  the  fleet  climbers 
of  the  rocks  and  big-horned  mountain  cliffs, 
and  the  flocks  that  build  their  eyrie  in  their 
crags,  all  of  which  are  occupants  of  the  sheep- 
pasture  of  these  chevaliers  of  the  wilderness, 
and  in  whose  court-yards  may  be  seen  speci- 
mens of  this  game,  of  which  they  are  not 
ashamed;  for  a  young  Carson  has  lassoed  a 
little  grizzly,  while  antelope  and  young  fawn 
feed  from  his  sister's  fingers. 

Here  too  the  Indian  braves  fear  not  to  come 
and  call  the  master  of  the  mansion,  Father, — 
"  Father  Kit,"  is  his  long  time  appellation — 
and  they  have  learned  to  look  on  him  and  his, 


LIFE   OF    CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  351 

\vith  all  that  reverence  and  fondness  with 
which  grateful  children  look  upon  a  worthy 
sire. 

Carson  cannot  tarry  at  his  pleasant  home, 
much  more  than  to  care  for  its  necessary  super- 
intendence, for  his  life  is  the  property  of  the 
public;  and  to  the  quiet  settlement  of  the  In- 
dians into  the  condition  which  is  happiest  for 
them,  so  far  as  it  can  be  secured  in  the  condi- 
tion of  the  country  and  their  own  habitudes,  is 
the  work  to  which  he  has  wisely  devoted  him- 
self. He  has  given  to  the  Indians  the  best 
years  of  his  ever  busy  life,  and  gives  them 
still,  neglectful  of  immediate  personal  comfort 
— or  rather  finding  highest  satisfaction  in 
doing  what  is  fittest  he  should  do,  because  it  is 
the  work  in  which  he  can  accomplish  the  most 
good. 

In  the  vicinity  of  the  home  of  Carson,  and 
that  of  his  friend  Maxwell,  are  gathered  a 
number  of  their  old  comrades — men  of  the 
mountains,  who  have  survived  the  multitudi- 
nous and  conflicting  events  which  have  come 
over  the  spirit  of  the  Yankee,  and  the  activi- 
ties of  the  Yankee  nation,  since  the  business  of 
trapping  first  became  for  her  hardy  sons  a  lu- 
crative employment ;  and  here,  in  the  society  of 
each  other,  and  the  conscious  security  of  pro- 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

tection  for  each  other,  in  a  locality  congenial  to 
their  tastes,  with  occasional  old  time  occupa- 
tions, and  where  the  rivalries  of  their  predi- 
lections can  be  still  indulged,  and  quietly  main- 
tained, they  are  ever  ready  after  every  test  to 
concede  to  Christopher  Carson  the  palm  of 
being  first  as  a  hunter,  first  as  an  experienced 
traveler  and  guide  through  the  mountain  coun- 
try, whether  it  be  by  a  route  he  has,  or  one  he 
has  never  before  traveled. 

The  stories  of  his  exploits  in  defence  of  his 
neighbors  and  friends,  and  to  recover  from  the 
Indians  property  they  had  stolen,  since  he  left 
the  service  of  the  Army  of  the  United  States, 
would  of  themselves  fill  a  volume,  and  we 
have  space  to  allude  to  but  a  very  few. 

A  Mrs.  White,  the  wife  of  a  merchant  of 
Santa  Fe,  had  been  taken  captive  with  her 
child,  (which  was  soon  killed  before  her  eyes,) 
by  a  party  of  Apaches,  who  had  shot  her  hus- 
band, and  all  the  men  of  his  company,  before 
capturing  her.  A  party  of  New  Mexicans  was 
at  once  organized  to  pursue  the  Indian  band, 
and  effect  Mrs.  White's  release  if  possible. 
The  guidance  of  this  party  was  entrusted  to 
a  neighbor  by  the  name  of  Watkins  Lsroux, 
rather  than  to  Carson.  They  found  the  ApacV* 
murderers,  and  Carson  was  advanciKg  tv»i  '  - 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER    CARSON.  3-r'3 

most  to  attack  them,  when  he  discovered  that 
tlie  rest  of  the  party  were  not  following ;  con- 
sequently he  had  to  retire,  and  when  the  com- 
mander ordered  the  attack  to  be  made,  it  was 
too  late,  for  the  Indians  had  murdered  Mrs. 
White  and  were  preparing  to  escape  by  flight. 
Carson  tells  this  story  with  all  the  generous 
magnanimity  a  great  soul  exercises  in  speaking 
of  a  failure  on  the  part  of  a  rival ;  admitting 
that,  if  his  advice  had  been  followed,  they 
might  have  saved  Mrs.  White,  but  affirming 
that  the  command  "  did  what  seemed  to  it  the 
best,  and  therefore  no  one  has  any  right  to 
find  fault." 

This  occurred  in  the  autumn  of  eighteen 
hundred  and  forty-nine,  directly  after  the  com- 
mencement of  the  settlement  of  Rayedo. 

Near  the  close  of  the  following  winter,  all 
the  animals  belonging  to  the  party  of  ten  dra- 
goons which  had  been  stationed  there  to  pro- 
tect the  settlement,  were  run  off  by  the  ma- 
rauding Apaches,  and  the  two  herders  having 
thorn  in  charge,  were  wounded.  Early  the  fol- 
lowing morning,  Carson  and  three  of  the  set- 
tlers with  the  ten  dragoons,  started  in  pursuit, 
discovered  the  Indians — twenty  well  armed 
warriors — and  four  of  the  party  being  obliged 
to  stop,  because  their  animals  had  given  out, 
23 


354          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

the  remaining  ten  rode  down  the  Indians, 
who  might  themselves  have  escaped  but  for 
their  persistence  in  retaining  the  stolen  horses, 
which  were  all  recaptured  except  four,  while 
fi  re  of  the  warriors  were  killed,  and  several 
more  wounded.  This  expedition  wTas  planned 
and  executed  under  the  direction  of  Carson,  and 
the  fact  that  he  was  their  leader  gave  every 
man  confidence,  as  they  knew  that  with  him  an 
engagement  implied  success  or  death. 

The  next  spring  Carson  went  to  Fort  Laramie 
with  a  drove  of  horses  and  mules,  making  the 
journey  successfully  and  pleasantly  in  company 
with  Timothy  Goodell,  another  old  moun- 
taineer, being  the  observed  of  all  observers  to 
the  large  numbers  of  overland  emigrants  to 
California  whom  he  met  at  the  fort,  where 
Goodell  left  him  to  go  to  California. 

Carson  found  a  Mexican  to  attend  him  upon 
his  return,  and  taking  a  circuitous  course,  he 
managed  to  avoid  the  Apaches  ;  often  traveling 
by  moon-light,  and  taking  their  animals  into  a 
quiet  nook,  and  climbing  a  tree  for  a  little 
Bleep  during  the  day,  they  finally  reached  tho 
Mexican  settlements  in  safety. 

The  days  of  the  following  summer  winged 
their  happy  flight  with  great  rapidity,  while 
Carson  was  directing  and  aiding  in  his  farm 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  355 

ing,  and,  of  course,  pursuing  his  favorite  em- 
ployment of  hunting,  ever  returning  from  a 
hunt  with  his  horse  laden  with  deer  or  ante- 
lope, wild  turkey  and  ducks,  or  perhaps  a  halt 
score  or  more  of  prairie  chickens,  to  complete 
the  list.  Only  once  was  his  work  interrupted 
by  the  harsher  business  of  chastising  offenders 
against  justice,  and  this  time  the  guilty  parties 
were  two  white  men. 

A  party  of  desperadoes,  so  frequently  the 
nuisance  of  a  new  country,  had  formed  a  plot 
to  murder  and  rob  two  wealthy  citizens,  whom 
they  had  volunteered  to  accompany  to  the  set- 
tlements in  the  States,  and  were  already  many 
miles  on  their  way,  when  Carson  was  informed 
of  the  nefarious  design.  In  one  hour  he  had 
organized  a  party,  and  was  on  his  way  in  quick 
pursuit,  taking  a  more  direct  route  to  intercept 
the  party,  and  endeavoring  at  the  same  time  to 
avoid  the  vicinity  of  the  Indians,  who  were 
now  especially  hostile,  but  of  whose  move- 
ments Carson  was  as  well  informed  as  any  ono 
could  be.  In  two  days  out  from  Taos,  they 
came  upon  a  camp  of  United  States  recruits, 
whose  officer  volunteered  to  accompany  him  witli 
twenty  men,  which  offer  was  accepted,  and  by 
forced  marches  they  soon  overtook  the  party 
of  traders,  and  at  once  arrested  Fox,  the  leadei 


356          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CAKSOX. 

of  the  wretches,  and  then  proceeded  to  inform 
Messrs.  Breve  jrt  and  Weatherheacl  of  the  dan- 
ger which  they  had  escaped;  and  they,  though 
at  first  astounded  by  the  disclosure,  had  noticed 
many  things  to  convince  them  that  the  plot 
would  soon  have  been  put  in  execution. 

Taking  the  members  of  their  party  whom 
they  knew  were  trusty,  they  at  once  ordered 
the  rest,  thirty-five  in  number,  to  leave  imme- 
diately, except  Fox,  who  remained  in  charge 
of  Carson,  to  whom  the  traders  were  abundant 
in  their  thanks  for  his  timely  interference  in 
their  behalf,  and  who  refused  every  offer  of 
recompense. 

Fox  was  taken  to  Taos,  and  imprisoned  for 
a  number  of  months ;  but  as  a  crime  only  in 
intent  was  difficult  to  be  proved,  and  the  adobe 
walls  of  their  houses  were  not  secure  enough  to 
retain  one  who  cared  to  release  himself,  Fox 
was  at  last  liberated,  and  went  to  parts  un- 
known. 

On  the  return  of  Messrs.  Brevoort  and 
Weatherhead  from  St.  Louis,  they  presented 
Carson  with  a  magnificent  pair  of  pistols,  upon 
whose  silver  mounting  were  inscribed  such 
words  as  would  laconically  illustrate  his  noble 
deed,  and  the  appreciation  of  the  donors  of  the 
great  service  rendered. 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  357 

The  summer  following  was  consumed  in  an 
excursion  for  trade,  on  behalf  of  himself  ami 
Maxwell,  and  a  visit  to  the  home  of  his  daugh- 
ter, now  married  in  St.  Louis ;  and  which  was 
prosecuted  without  incident  worthy  of  note, 
until  he  came  to  a  Cheyenne  village  on  the 
Arkansas,  upon  his  return.  This  village  had 
received  an  affront  from  the  officer  of  a  party 
of  United  States  troops  bound  to  New  Mexico, 
who  had  whipped  one  of  their  chiefs,  some  ten 
days  before  the  arrival  of  Carson  ;  and  to  have 
revenge  upon  some  one  of  the  whites,  was  now 
the  passion  of  the  wrhole  tribe. 

The  conduct  of  this  officer  is  only  a  specimen 
of  that  which  thousands  have  exercised  toward 
the  Indians  of  the  different  tribes;  and  the 
result  is  the  same  in  all  cases.  Carson's  was 
the  first  party  to  pass  the  Indian  village  after 
this  insult;  and  so  many  years  had  elapsed 
since  he  was  a  hunter  at  Bent's  Fort,  and  so 
much  had  this  nation  been  stirred  by  their 
numberless  grievances,  that  Carson's  name  was 
no  longer  a  talisman  of  safety  to  his  party,  nor 
even  of  respect  to  himself,  in  their  then  state 
of  excitement ;  and  as  Carson  went  deliberately 
into  the  war  council,  which  the  Indians  were 
holding  on  the  discovery  of  his  party,  having 
ordered  his  men  to  keep  their  force  close  to- 


358  LIFE    OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

getlier,  the  Indians  supposing  he  could  not 
understand  them,  continued  to  talk  freely  of 
the  manner  of  capturing  the  effects,  and  killing 
the  whole  party,  and  especially  himself,  whom 
they  at  once  concluded  was  the  leader.  When 
Kit  had  heard  all  their  plans,  he  coolly  ad- 
dressed them  in  the  Cheyenne  language,  telling 
them  who  he  was,  his  former  association  with 
and  kindness  to  their  tribe ;  and  that  now,  he 
should  be  glad  to  render  them  any  assistance 
they  might  need ;  but  as  to  their  having  his 
scalp,  he  should  claim  the  right  of  saying  a 
word.  The  Indians  departed,  and  Carson  went 
on  his  way ;  but  there  were  hundreds  of  the 
Cheyennes  in  sight  upon  the  hills,  and  though 
they  made  no  attack,  Carson  knew  he  was  in 
their  power,  nor  had  they  given  up  the  idea  of 
taking  his  train.  His  cool  deliberation  kept 
his  men  in  spirits,  and  yet,  except  upon  two  or 
three  of  the  whole  fifteen,  he  could  place  no 
reliance  in  an  emergency.  At  night  the  men 
and  ?nules  were  all  brought  within  the  circle 
of  wagons,  grass  was  cut  with  their  sheath- 
knives,  and  brought  into  the  mules,  and  as 
large  a  guard  was  placed  as  possible.  AVhen 
all  was  quiet,  Carson  called  outside  the  camp 
with  him.  a  Mexican  boy  of  the  party,  and  ex- 
plaining to  him  the  danger  which  threatened 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  359 

them,  told  him  it  was  in  his  power  to  save  the 
lives  of  the  company,  and  giving  him  instruc- 
tions how  to  proceed,  sent  him  on  alone  to 
Rayedo,  a  journey  of  nearly  three  hundred 
miles,  to  ask  an  escort  of  United  States  troops 
to  be  sent  out  to  meet  him,  telling  the  bravo 
young  Mexican  to  "  put  a  good  many  miles 
between  him  and  the  camp  before  morning;" 
and  so  he  started  him,  with  a  few  rations  of 
provisions,  without  toiling  the  rest  of  the  party 
that  such  a  step  was  necessary.  This  boy  had 
long  been  in  Carson's  service,  and  was  well 
known  to  him  as  faithful  and  active,  so  that  ho 
had  no  doubts  as  to  the  faithful  execution  of 
the  trust  confided  to  him ;  and  in  a  wild  coun- 
try like  JSTew  Mexico,  with  the  out-door  life 
and  habits  of  its  people,  a  journey  like  the  one 
on  which  he  was  dispatched,  was  not  an  unusual 
occurrence  :  indeed,  in  that  country,  parties  or. 
foot  often  accompany  those  on  horse,  for  days 
together,  and  do  not  seem  to  feel  the  fatigue. 
Carson  now  returned  to  the  camp  to  watch 
all  night  himself;  and  at  break  of  day  they 
were  again  upon  the  road.  JNro  Indians  ap- 
peared until  nearly  noon,  when  five  warriors 
came  galloping  toward  them.  As  they  camo 
near  enough  to  hear  him,  Carson  ordered  them 
to  halt,  and  approaching,  told  them  that  tho 


360          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOtf. 

niglit  before,  he  had  sent  a  messenger  to 
Rayedo,  to  inform  the  troops  that  their  tribe 
were  annoying  him ;  and  if  he  or  his  men  were 
molested,  terrible  punishment  would  be  in- 
flicted by  those  who  would  surely  come  to  his 
relief.  The  Indians  replied,  that  they  would 
look  for  the  moccasin  tracks,  which  they  pro- 
bably found,  and  Carson  considered  this  the 
reason  that  induced  the  whole  village  to  pass 
away  toward  the  hills  after  a  little  time,  evi- 
dently seeking  a  place  of  safety.  The  young 
Mexican  overtook  the  party  of  troops  whose 
officer  had  caused  the  trouble,  to  whom  he  told 
his  story,  and  failing  to  secure  sympathy,  he 
continued  to  Rayedo,  and  procured  thence  im- 
mediate assistance.  Major  Grier  dispatched  a 
party  oC  troops,  under  Lieutenant  R.  Johnston, 
which,  making  rapid  marches,  met  Carson 
twenty-  five  miles  below  Bent's  Fort ;  and, 
though  they  encountered  no  Indians,  the  effect 
of  the  quick  transit  of  troops  from  one  part  of 
the  country  to  another,  could  not  be  other  than 
good,  as  a  means  of  impressing  the  Indians 
with  the  effective  force  of  the  United  States 
troops, 


CHAPTER    XXXIV. 

EIGHTEEN  years  had  elapsed,  full  of  eventful 
history — especially  the  last  ten — since  Carson 
had  renounced  the  business  of  trapping,  and 
of  late  there  had  been  an  almost  irrepressible 
longing  once  more  to  try  his  skill  at  his  old 
employment,  in  company  with  others  who  had 
been,  with  himself,  adepts  at  the  business. 
Accordingly  he  and  Maxwell,  by  a  great  effort, 
succeeded  in  collecting  sixteen  more  of  their 
old  companions,  and  taking  care  to  provide 
themselves  abundantly  with  all  the  necessaries 
for  such  a  service,  and  with  such  added  articles 
of  comfort  as  the  pleasurable  character  of  the 
excursion  dictated,  they  started,  with  Carson  at 
the  head  of  the  band,  "  any  one  of  whom  would 
have  periled  his  life  for  any  other,  and  having 
voted  that  the  expedition  should  be  one  for  hard 
work,  as  when  they  trapped  for  gain  long  ago," 
they  dashed  on  across  the  plains,  till  they  came 

to  the  South  Platte,  and  upor  its  well  rem.vu- 

(3611 


362          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

bercd  waters,  formed  their  camp  and  set  their 
traps,  having  first  apprised  themselves,  by  the 
"signs,"  that  the  beaver  were  abundant.  In- 
deed, so  long  ago  had  trapping  gone  into  disuse, 
that  the  hunt  proved  successful  beyond  their 
anticipations,  and  they  worked  down  this 
stream,  through  the  Laramie  plains  to  the 
New  Park,  on  to  the  Old  Park,  and  upon  a 
large  number  of  the  streams,  their  old  resorts, 
and  returned  to  Rayedo  with  a  large  stock  of 
furs,  having  enlivened  the  time  by  the  recital 
to  each  other  of  many  of  the  numberless  enter- 
taining events  which  had  crowded  upon  their 
lives  while  they  had  been  separated. 

Would  not  the  reader  like  to  have  made 
this  excursion  with  them,  and  witnessed  the 
infinite  zest  with  which  these  mature  and  ex- 
perienced men  entered  again  upon  what  seemed 
now  to  them  the  sport  of  their  earlier  years  ? 
They  made  it,  as  much  as  possible,  a  season  of 
enjoyment.  One  of  the  party  had  lassoed  a 
grizzly,  but,  finding  it  inconvenient  to  retain 
him,  he  had  been  shot,  and  bear  steaks,  again 
enjoyed  together,  had  been  a  part  of  the 
Fourth  of  July  treat  they  afforded  their  vis- 
itors, the  Sioux  Indians.  As  w^e  have  but  little 
further  opportunity,  we  will  quote  Fremont's 
description  of  the  Mountain  Parks,  f>r  the 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSOX.  363 

sake  of  giving  the  reader  an  idea  of  the  locality 
of  this  last  trapping  enterprise  of  Kit  Carson  : 

"  Our  course  in  the  afternoon  brought  us  to 
the  main  Platte  River,  here  a  handsome  stream, 
with  a  uniform  breadth  of  seventy  yards,  ex- 
cept where  widened  by  frequent  islands.  It 
was  apparently  deep,  with  a  moderate  current, 
and  wooded  with  groves  of  large  willow. 

"  The  valley  narrowed  as  we  ascended,  and 
presently  degenerated  into  a  gorge,  through 
which  the  river  passed  as  through  a  gate.  We 
entered  it,  and  found  ourselves  in  the  K"ew 
Park — a  beautiful  circular  valley  of  thirty  miles 
diameter,  walled  in  all  round  with  snowy 
mountains,  rich  with  water  and  with  grass, 
fringed  with  pine  on  the  mountain  sides  below 
the  snow  line,  and  a  paradise  to  all  grazing 
animals.  The  Indian  name  for  it  signifies 
"cow  lodge"  of  which  our  own  may  be  consid- 
ered a  translation  ;  the  enclosure,  the  grass,  the 
water,  and  the  herds  of  buffalo  roaming  over 
it,  naturally  presenting  the  idea  of  a  park, 
7,720  feet  above  tide  water. 

"  It  is  from  this  elevated  cove,  and  from  the 
gorges  of  the  surrounding  mountains,  and  some 
lakes  within  their  bosoms,  that  the  Great  Platte 
River  collects  its  first  waters,  and  assumes  Ha 


364  LIFE   OF   CHKISTOrilER    CARSON. 

first  form ;  and  certainly  no  river  has  a  more 
beautiful  origin. 

"Descending  from  the  pass,  we  found  our- 
selves again  on  the  western  waters  ;  and  halted 
to  noon  on  the  edge  of  another  mountain  val- 
ley, called  the  Old  Park,  in  which  is  formed 
Grand  River,  one  of  the  principal  branches 
of  the  Colorado  of  California.  We  were  now 
moving  with  some  caution,  as,  from  the  trail, 
we  found  the  Arapahoe  village  had  also  passed 
this  way.  As  we  were  coming  out  of  their 
enemy's  country,  and  this  was  a  war  ground, 
we  were  desirous  to  avoid  them.  After  a  long 
afternoon's  march,  we  halted  at  night  on  a 
small  creek,  tributary  to  a  main  fork  of  Grand 
River,  which  ran  through  this  portion  of  the 
valley.  The  appearance  of  the  country  in  the 
Old  Park  is  interesting,  though  of  a  different 
character  from  the  New ;  instead  of  being  a 
comparative  plain,  it  is  more  or  less  broken 
into  hills,  and  surrounded  by  the  high  moun- 
tains, timbered  on  the  lower  parts  with  quaking 
asp  and  pines. 

"  AVe  entered  the  Bayou  Salacle,  (South 
Park,)  and  immediately  below  us  was  a  green 
valley,  through  which  ran  a  stream ;  and  a 
short  distance  opposite  rose  snowy  mountains, 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CAHSON.  365 

whose  summits  were  formed  into  peaks  of 
naked  rock. 

"  On  the  following  day  we  descended  the 
stream  by  an  excellent  buffalo  trail,  along  the 
open  grassy  bottom  of  the  river.  On  our 
right,  the  bayou  was  bordered  by  a  mountainous 
range,  crested  with  rocky  and  naked  peaks ; 
and  below  it  had  a  beautiful  park-like  char- 
acter of  pretty  level  prairies,  interspersed 
among  low  spurs,  wooded  openly  with  pine 
and  quaking  asp,  contrasting  well  with  the 
denser  pines  which  swept  around  on  the  moun- 
tain sides. 

"During  the  afternoon,  Pike's  Peak  had 
been  plainly  in  view  before  us. 

"  The  next  day  we  left  the  river,  which  con- 
tinued its  course  towards  Pike's  Peak ;  and 
taking  a  south-easterly  direction,  in  about  ten 
miles  we  crossed  a  gentle  ridge,  and,  issuing 
from  the  South  Park,  found  ourselves  involved 
among  the  broken  spurs  of  the  mountains 
which  border  the  great  prairie  plains.  Al- 
though broken  and  extremely  rugged,  the 
country  was  very  interesting,  being  well  wa- 
tered by  numerous  affluents  to  the  Arkansas 
River,  and  covered  with  grass  and  a  variety 
of  trees." 

Carson   had   disposed  of  his  furs,  and  was 


366          LIFE   OF   CHEISTOPHER   CARSON. 

again  quietly  attending  to  his  ranclie,  when  ho 
heard  of  the  exorbitant  prices  for  which  sheep 
were  selling  in  California,  and  determined  to 
outer  upon  a  speculation.  He  had  already  vis- 
ited the  JNTavajos  Indians,  and  thither  he  went 
again,  and  in  company  with  Maxwell  and  an- 
other mountaineer,  purchased  several  thousand 
sheep ;  and  with  a  suitable  company  of  trusty 
men  as  shepherds,  took  them  to  Fort  Laramie, 
and  thence  by  the  regular  emigrant  route,  past 
Salt  Lake  to  California,  and  arriving  without 
any  disaster,  disposed  of  them  in  one  of  the 
frontier  towns,  and  then  went  down  to  the  Sac- 
ramento valley,  to  witness  the  change  which 
had  come  over  old  familiar  places ;  not  that 
the  mining  did  not  interest  him ;  he  had  seen 
that  before  in  Mexico,  but  he  had  not  seen  the 
cities  which  had  sprung  into  existence  at  a 
hundred  points,  in  the  foot  hills  of  the  Sierras, 
nor  had  he  seen  San  Francisco,  that  city  of 
wondrous  growth,  which  now  contained  thirty- 
five  thousand  inhabitants. 

But  for  the  remembrance  of  the  hills  on 
which  the  city  rested,  Carson  would  not  have 
known  the  metropolis  of  California,  as  the  spot 
where  in  '48  "  the  people  could  be  counted  in  an 
hour."  In  San  Francisco  he  met  so  many  old 
friends,  and  so  many,  who,  knowing  him 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  367 

the  history  of  his  deeds,  desired  to  do  him 
honor,  that  the  attentions  he  received,  while  it 
gratified  his  ambition,  were  almost  annoying. 

Tired  by  the  anxiety  and  hard  work  of 
bringing  his  property  over  a  long  and  dan- 
gerous journey  to  a  good  market,  he  had 
looked  for  rest  and  retirement;  but  instead,  ho 
was  everywhere  sought  out  and  made  conspic- 
uous. 

He  found  himself  surrounded  with  the 
choice  spirits  of  the  new  El  Dorado;  his  name 
a  prestige  of  strength  and  position,  and  his  so- 
ciety courted  by  everybody.  The  siren  voice 
of  pleasure  failed  not  to  speak  in  his  ear  her 
most  flattering  invitations.  Good-fellowship 
took  him  incessantly  by  the  hand,  desiring  to 
lead  him  into  the  paths  of  dissipation.  But 
the  gay  vortex,  with  all  its  brilliancy,  had  no 
attractions  for  him;  the  wrine  cup,  with  its 
sparkling  arguments,  failed  to  convince  his 
calm  earnestness  of  character,  that  his  simple 
habits  of  life  needed  remodeling.  To  the  storm, 
however,  he  was  exposed  ;  but,  like  a  good  ship 
during  the  gale,  he  weathered  the  fierce  blast, 
and  finally  took  his  departure  from  the  new 
city  of  a  day,  with  his  character  untarnished, 
but  nevertheless  leaving  behind  him  many 
golden  opinions. 


368          LIFE   OF   CIJTUSTOPHER   CARSON*. 

Some  newspaper  scribbler,  last  autumn,  an- 
nounced the  death  of  Carson,  and  said,  in  con- 
nection, "  His  latest  and  most  remarkable  ex- 
ploit on  the  plains,  was  enacted  in  1853,  when 
h  3  conducted  a  drove  of  sheep  safely  to  Cali- 
fornia." Probably  the  writer  was  one  of  those 
whose  eager  curiosity  had  met  a  rebuff,  in  the 
quiet  dignity  with  which  Carson  received  the 
officiousness  of  the  rabble  who  thronged  around 
him  on  that  visit.  Not  that  he  appreciated 
honor  less,  but  that  its  unnecessary  attach- 
ments were  exceedingly  displeasing  to  him. 

In  this  terribly  fast  city,  where  the  monie 
table,  and  its  kindred  dissipations,  advertised 
themselves  without  a  curtain,  and  where  to  in- 
dulge was  the  rule  rather  than  the  exception, 
Carson  was  able  to  stand  fire,  for  he  had  been 
before  now  tried  by  much  greater  temptations. 

In  the  strange  commingling  of  people  from 
all  quarters  of  the  globe,  whom  Carson  wit- 
nessed in  San  Francisco,  he  saw  but  a  slight 
exaggeration  of  what  he  had  often  witnessed 
in  Santa  Fe, — and  indeed,  for  the  element  of 
variety,  in  many  a  trapping  party,  not  to  name 
the  summer  rendezvous  of  the  trappers,  or  the 
exploring  parties  of  Col.  Fremont.  To  be 
sure  the  Chinamen  and  the  Kanackers  were  a 
new  feature  in  society.  But  whether  it  te  in 


LIFE   OF   CIIHISTOPIIER   CARSON.  SOD 

the  many  nationalities  represented,  or  in  tlio 
pleasures  they  pursued,  except  that  in  San 
Francisco  there  was  a  lavishncss  in  the  ex- 
penditure of  wealth  commensurate  with  i(s 
speedier  accumulation,  there  was  little  new  to 
him,  and  while  he  saw  its  magic  growth  with 
glad  surprise,  the  attractions  this  city  offered 
could  not  allure  him.  Nor  could  the  vista  it 
opened  up  of  a  chance  to  rise  into  position  in 
the  advancing  struggles  for  political  ascen- 
dency, induce  one  wish  to  locate  his  home  in  a 
spot  so  wanting  in  the  kindly  social  relation- 
ships ;  for  he  had  tried  the  things  and  found 
them  vanity  and  vexation  of  spirit,  and  now 
he  yearned  for  his  mountain  home,  and  the 
sweet  pastoral  life  which  it  afforded  in  his  cir- 
cle of  tried  friends. 

He  saved  the  money  he  had  secured  by  the 
sale  of  his  flocks,  and  went  down  overland  to 
Los  Angelos  to  meet  Maxwell,  who  took  the 
trip  by  sea,  which  Carson  having  tasted  once, 
could  not  be  persuaded  to  try  again,  and  there 
renewing  his  outfit,  and  visiting  again  some  of 
its  honored  citizens,  they  started  homeward, 
and  had  a  pleasant  passage  till  they  reached 
the  Gila  River,  where  grass  became  so  scarce 
that  they  were  compelled  to  take  a  new  course 
in  order  to  find  food  for  their  horses ;  but  Car- 

24 


370          LIFE   OF    CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

son  had  no  difficulty  in  pursuing  a  measure)  ly 
direct  course,  and  without  encountering  a  su  >w 
storm,  often  terribly  severe  in  the  mountains 
of  this  interior  country,  he  reached  Taos  on 
the  third  of  December  1853. 

He  here  received  the  unexpected  information 
that  he  had  been  appointed  Indian  agent  for 
New  Mexico,  and  immediately  wrote  and  sent 
to  Washington  the  bonds  of  acceptance  of  this 
office.  And  now  commences  Carson's  official 
career,  in  a  capacity  for  which  he  was  better 
fitted  than  any  other  person  in  the  Territory. 

Long  had  the  Indians  in  his  vicinity  called 
him  "  father,"  but  now  he  had  a  new  claim  to 
this  title,  for  he  was  to  be  to  them  the  almoner 
of  the  bounty  of  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment. There  was  immediate  call  for  the  exer- 
cise of  the  duties  of  his  office,  (for  the  Indians 
of  New  Mexico,  had  all  buried  the  tomahawk 
and  calumet,)  in  visiting  and  attempting  to 
quiet  a  band  of  Apaches,  among  whom  he 
went  alone,  for  they  all  knew  him,  and  secured 
from  them  plenty  of  promises  to  do  well ;  but 
he  had  scarcely  left  them,  before  they  were 
tired  of  the  self-imposed  restraint,  and  renew- 
edly  continued  their  depredations,  and  several 
serious  battles  were  fought  with  them  by  the 
United  States  troops,  the  first  having  proved 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHEll   CARSON.          371 

unsuccessful,  but  never  was  success  wanting 
when  the  commander  of  United  States  dragoons 
had  placed  his  confidence  in  the  advice,  and  fol« 
lowed  the  suggestions  of  Kit  Carson,  who  was 
admitted  by  them  to  be  the  prince  of  Indian 
fighters — though  he  never  tolerated  cruelty  or 
the  expenditure  of  life  when  there  was  no  im- 
perious necessity,  but  yet  regarded  severe 
measures  better  than  a  dawdling  policy. 

There  had  been  serious  fights  in  New  Mex- 
ico in  1846,  while  Carson  was  away  with  Fre- 
mont; and  it  was  better  so,  as  the  Mexicans 
were  his  blood  and  kin  ;  yet,  in  the  change  of 
authority,  he  fully  sympathized.  But  now,  the 
enemy  was  the  different  tribes  of  Indians,  and 
in  the  capacity  of  Agent  for  them,  Carson 
chose  to  impress  them  with  the  power  of  the 
government  for  which  he  acted  for  their  own 
good,  that  they  might  be  induced  to  desist  from 
their  plundering,  and  be  prepared  for  the  in- 
fluences and  practices  of  civilization ;  and  all 
the  victories  secured  over  them  were  due,  as 
history  truly  records,  "  To  the  aid  of  Kit  Car- 
son," "With  the  advice  of  Kit  Carson;"  Tnid 
never  once  is  his  name  associated  with  a  defeat ; 
for,  if  he  made  a  part  of  an  expedition,  a  con- 
dition must  be,  that  such  means  should  be  em- 
ployed as  he  knew  would  accomplish  the 


372          LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

desired ;  for  he  did  not  choose,  by  one  s 
failure,  to  give  the  Indians  a  chance  to  think 
their  lawlessness  could  escape  its  merited  retri- 
bution. 

JSTor  yet  did  Carson  ever  advise  that  confi- 
dence in  the  promises  of  the  Indians  which 
was  not  backed  by  such  exhibition  of  power  as 
to  command  obedience ;  knowing  that  with 
these  children  of  the  forest,  schooled  in  the 
arts  of  plunder,  and  the  belief  that  white  men 
and  white  men's  property  were  an  intrusion  on 
their  hunting  grounds,  and  therefore  lawful 
prey — this  was  and  is  their  law — non-resist\nce 
would  not  answer,  and  only  stern  command, 
backed  by  the  rifle,  ever  has  secured  obedi- 
ence— though  they  appreciate  the  kindnesses 
done  by  those  friends  who  have  such  reliance. 
But  it  was  Carson's  opinion  that  the  country 
cannot  be  safe  while  the  Indians  roam  over  it 
in  this  wild  way,  or  until  they  are  located  on 
lands  devoted  to  them  and  theirs  for  permanent 
homes,  and  are  compelled  to  settle  upon  and 
cultivate  the  soil,  when  he  thinks  they  will 
come,  by  careful  teaching,  to  display  sentiments 
of  responsibility  for  their  own  acts. 

There  is  little  doubt  that,  had  Carson  been 
appointed  Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs  for 
the  department  of  Xew  Mexico,  the  reliance 


LIFE   OF   CIIRISTOPHER   CARSON.  373 

sometimes  placed  on  treaties  would  have  been 
discarded,  and  measures  taken  at  an  earlier 
date,  to  locate  the  Apaches  and  Camanches  and 
Utiihs,  which  might  have  been  accomplished 
with  less  expenditure  of  blood  and  of  treasure ; 
but  he  quietly  pursued  his  business,  relying  upon 
the  influence  which  his  knowledge  and  skill  had 
given  him  to  induce  his  superiors  in  official 
authority  to  undertake  such  measures  as  seemed 
to  him  the  wisest. 

The  headquarters  of  his  Indian  agency  were 
at  Taos,  and  while  he  spent  as  much  of  his  time 
as  possible  at  Rayedo,  the  duties  of  his  office 
compelled  the  larger  part  of  it  at  Taos.  The 
thousand  kindly  acts  he  was  able  to  perform  for 
the  Indians,  by  whom  he  was  constantly  sur- 
rounded, had  secured  such  regard  for  himself 
that  he  needed  no  protection  where  he  was 
known — and  what  Indian  of  New  Mexico  did 
not  know  him?  He  went  among  them,  and 
entertained  them  as  the  children  of  his  charge, 
having  their  unbounded  confidence  and  love. 

Every  year,  in  the  hey-day  of  the  season, 
Carson  continued  the  custom  of  a  revival  of 
earlier  associations,  by  indulging,  for  a  few  days, 
or  perhaps  weeks,  in  the  chase;  and  was  joined 
in  these  excursions  by  a  goodly  company  of  his 
old  compeers,  as  well  as  later  acquired  friends. 


374  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

and  men  of  reputation  and  culture,  from  what- 
ever quarter  of  the  world,  visiting  the  territory ; 
and  especially  by  a  select  few  of  the  braves  of 
the  Indian  tribes  under  his  charge.  These  were 
seasons  of  grateful  recurrence,  and  their  pleasures 
were  long  anticipated  amid  the  wearisome  duties 
of  his  office. 

The  incidents  of  his  every-day  life,  inter- 
vening his  appointment  as  Indian  agent  and  the 
rebellion,  would  furnish  an  abundance  of  material 
for  a  romance  even  stranger  than  fiction.  A  life 
BO  exciting  as  that  among  the  Indians  and  brave 
frontiersmen,  and  a  name  so  renowned  as  that 
of  Christopher  Carson,  could  not  but  attract 
and  concentre  wild  and  romantic  occurrences. 
Ilis  life  during  these  years  is  inseparably  con- 
nected with  the  history  of  the  Territory  of  New 
Mexico,  which,  could  it  be  given  to  the  public 
in  all  its  copious  and  interesting  details,  would 
unquestionably  concede  to  him  all  the  noblest 
characteristics  in  man. 

The  treaties  between  the  United  States  and 
the  Indians,  during  the  term  of  his  appointment, 
were  mainly  the  result  of  his  acquaintance  with 
the  Indians,  his  knowledge  of  their  character, 
and  his  influence  over  them.  Nor  did  the 
Government  fail  to  recognize  his  valuable  ser- 
vices. During  the  rebellion,  and  while  serving 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  375 

principally  in  New  Mexico,  where  he  distirt- 
guished  himself  by  his  untiring  prosecution  of 
hostilities  witli  his  savage  foes,  then  at  war  with 
the  Government,  he  was  promoted  from  rank  to 
rank,  until  he  finally  reached  that  of  Brevet 
Brigadier-General. 

In  a  report  to  the  National  headquarters, 
dated  at  Camp  Florilia,  near  FortCanb}',  N.  M., 
January  26, 1864,  we  find  the  following  detailed 
account  of  operations  in  New  Mexico : 

"  The  culminating  point  in  this  expedition  has 
been  reached  at  last  by  the  very  successful 
operations  of  our  troops  at  Canon  de  Chelly. 
Col.  Kit  Carson  left  Fort  Canby  on  the  sixth 
instant  with  a  command  of  four  hundred  men, 
twenty  of  whom  were  mounted.  He  had  a 
section  of  mountain  artillery  with  him,  and 
taking  the  road  via  Puebla,  Colorado,  he  started 
for  Calion  de  Chelly.  He  gave  orders  to  Capt. 
Plieiffer  with  his  command  of  one  hundred  men 
to  enter  the  canon  at  the  east  opening,  while  he 
himself  intended  to  enter  it  at  the  '  mouth/  or 
west  opening,  and  by  this  movement  he  ex- 
pected that  both  columns  would  meet  in  the 
cafion  on  the  second  day,  as  it  was  supposed  to 
be  forty  miles  in  length. 

"Capt.  PheifTer's  party  proceeded  two  days 
through  the  canon,  fighting  occasionally ;  but  al« 


376  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

f hough  the  Indians  frequently  fired  on  them  from 
the  rocky  walls  above,  the  balls  were  spent  long  lx?- 
fore  they  reached  the  bottom  of  the  canon,  which, 
in  many  places,  exceeded  one  thousand  five 
hundred  feet  in  depth.  It  was  a  singular  spec- 
tacle to  behold.  A  small  detachment  of  troops 
moving  cautiously  along  the  bottom  of  one  of 
the  greatest  canons  on  the  globe,  (the  largest  is 
in  Asia,  I  believe,)  and  firing  volleys  upward  at 
hundreds  of  Navajoes,  who  looked,  on  the  dizzy 
height  above  them,  like  so  many  pigmies.  As 
they  advanced  the  canon  widened  in  places,  and 
various  spots  of  cultivated  land  were  passed, 
where  wheat,  maize,  beans,  melons,  etc.,  had 
been  planted  last  year;  while  more  than  a 
thousand  feet  above  their  heads  they  beheld 
neat-looking  stone  houses  built  on  the  receding 
ledges  of  rocks,  which  reminded  the  beholder  of 
the  swallows'  nests  in  the  house  eaves,  or  on  the 
rocky  formation  overhanging  the  '  sea-beat  caves/ 
Further  on,  an  orchard  containing  about  six  hun- 
dred peach-trees  was  passed,  and  it  was  evident 
that  the  Indians  had  paid  great  attention  to  their 
culture. 

"  On  the  second  day  a  party  from  Col.  Carson's 
column  met  the  Captain  in  the  canon,  and  re' 
turned  with  him  to  Col.  Carson's  ca^inp.  A 
party  from  the  Colonel's  command  had,  in  the 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  377 

meantime,  .attacked  a  party  of  Indians,  twenty* 
t\vo   of  whom  were   killed.     This   had    a   dis- 
piriting effect  on  many  others,  who  sent  in  three 
of  their  number  under  a  white  flag.    Col.  Carson 
received  them,  and  assured  them  that  the  Gov- 
ernment did  not  desire  to  exterminate  them,  but 
that,  on  the  contrary,  the  President  wished  to 
save  and  civilize  them;   and  to  that  end  Gen. 
Carl  ton  had  given  him  instructions  to  send  all 
the    Navajoes  who   desired   peace   to   the   new 
reservation  on  the  Rio  Pecos,  where  they  would 
be  supplied  with  food  for  the  present,  and  be 
furnished  with  implements,  seeds,  etc.,  to  culti- 
vate the  soil.     They  departed  well-satisfied,  and 
Col.  Carson  immediately   ordered   Capt.  A.   B. 
Carey,  Thirteenth  United  States  Infantry,  with 
a   battalion   to   enter   the   canon,  and   make  a 
thorough  exploration   of  its   various  branches, 
and   at   the   same   time   to   be  in  readiness  to 
chastise  any  body  of  hostile  Navajoes  he  might 
encounter,  and  to  receive  all  who  were  friendly, 
and  who  wished  to  emigrate  to  the  new  reserva- 
tion.    Capt.  Carey,  during  a  passage  of  twenty- 
four  hours  through  a.branch  of  the  canon  hither- 
to unexplored,  made  an  exact  geographical  map 
of  this  terrible  chasm,  and  discovered  many  side 
canons  hitherto  unknown.     About  one  hundred 
Indians  came  in  to  him  and  declared  that  *  the 


378  LIFE   OF   CI/RISTOPHER   CARSON. 

Navajo  nation  was  no  more;'  that  they  were 
tired  of  fighting  and  nearly  starved,  and  that 
they  wished  to  be  permitted  to  advise  their 
friends  and  families  in  the  mountains ;  many  of 
whom  were  willing  to  leave  the  land  forever, 
and  go  to  a  country  where  they  would  be  cared 
for  and  protected.  They  said  they  understood 
agriculture,  and  were  certain  they  would  make 
comfortable  homes  on  the  Pecos.  This  was,  of 
course,  only  the  opinion  of  some ;  others  would 
prefer  to  remain  and  culture  the  soil  on  which 
they  were  born,  and  live  at  peace  with  the 
territory.  However,  the  latter  were  positively 
informed  that  unless  they  were  willing  to 
remove  they  had  better  not  come  in,  and, 
moreover,  that  the  troops  would  destroy  every 
blade  of  corn  in  the  country  next  summer. 

"  On  the  20th  of  January  Col.  Carson  came 
to  Fort  Canby,  and  about  six  hundred  Indians 
had  collected  there;  but  when  the  wagons  arrived 
to  remove  them  only  one  hundred  wished  to  go, 
and  the  remainder  desired  to  return  to  their 
villages  and  caves  in  the  mountains,  on  pretence 
of  bringing  in  some  absent  member  of  their 
families.  Col.  Carson  very  nobly  and  generously 
permitted  them  to  choose  for  themselves;  but 
told  them  if  ever  they  came  in  again  they  should 
be  sent  to  Borgue  Redondo,  whether  willing  or 


LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON.  379 

not.  Col.  Carson  himself  took  the  Indians  to 
Santa  Fe,  and  will  remain  absent  about  a  month. 
Since  his  departure  many  Indians  came  in  and 
agreed  to  go  to  the  reservation. 

"  I  think  the  Colonel  foresaw  this,  as  no 
person  understands  Indian  character  better  than 
he  does.  Capt.  A.  B.  Carey,  Thirteenth  In- 
fantry, commanding  in  his  absence,  will  see  that 
all  Indians  coming  in  will  be  removed,  and,  I 
think,  before  April  next,  if  the  present  good 
feeling  exists,  we  shall  have  accomplished  tho 
removal  of  the  entire  tribe.  Capt.  A.  B.  Carey, 
after  successfully  marching  through  the  canon 
and  noting  its  topography,  reached  Fort  Canby 
on  the  eighteenth  instant,  and  relieved  Capt. 
Francis  M'Cabe,  First  New  Mexico  Cavalry, 
who  commanded  in  the  absence  of  Col.  Kit 
Carson. 

"As  the  Navajo  expedition  is  now  entirely 
successful,  it  is  but  justice  to  the  officers  and 
men  of  the  First  Cavalry  of  New  Mexico,  and 
to  Col.  Christopher  Carson  and  his  staff  to  say 
that  they  have  all  acted  with  zeal  and  devotion 
for  the  accomplishment  of  that  great  desidera- 
tum— the  removal  of  the  Navajoes.  Cut  off 
from  the  enjoyments  of  civilized  life,  deprived 
of  its  luxuries,  comforts,  and  even  many  of  its 
necessaries,  and  restricted  to  the  exploration  of 


380  LIFE  OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

a  wilderness  and  the  castigation  of  an  army  of 
savages,  who  defied  them,  and  endeavored  to 
find  a  shelter  among  the  cliffs,  groves,  and 
canons  of  their  country ;  in  pursuing  them  to 
their  haunts  they  have  encountered  appalling 
difficulties,  namely :  want  of  water,  grass,  and 
fuel ;  often  exposed  to  the  merciless  fury  of  the 
elements,  and  to  the  bullets  and  arrows  of  a 
hidden  foe.  In  the  face  of  these  difficulties  they 
have  discovered  new  rivers,  springs,  and  moun- 
tains in  a  region  hitherto  unexplored,  and  pene- 
trated by  companies  into  the  very  strongholds 
of  the  enemy,  who  fled  farther  west  as  our 
columns  advanced,  and  on  various  occasions  the 
dismounted  cavalry  have,  by  rapid  and  unpar- 
alleled night  marches,  surprised  that  enemy, 
capturing  his  camp  and  securing  his  flocks  and 
herd?,  at  a  time  when  he  imagined  himself  fai 
beyond  our  reach,  and  really  when  he  occupied 
a  country  never  before  trodden  by  the  foot  of  a 
white  man. 

"  Much  of  the  credit  is  due  to  the  perseverance 
and  courage  of  Col.  Kit  Carson,  commanding  the 
expedition,  whose  example  excited  all  to  great 
enenry,  and  inspired  great  resolution;  but  it  may 
not  be  out  of  place  to  remark  that  it  is  now  de- 
monstrated beyond  a  doubt  that,  while  the  troops 
of  New  Mexico  have  long  borne  the  reputation 


LIFE   OF   CIlRISTOniEK   CARSON.  08] 

of  being  the  best  cavalry,  they  have  proved 
themselves  in  the  present  campaign  to  be  the 
best  infantry  in  the  world. 

"  Gen.  James  H,  Carl  ton,  who  knows,  perhaps, 
and  understands  the  material  for  an  army  as 
well  as  any  General  in  our  army,  has  directed 
the  formation  of  a  New-Mexican  Brigade,  and 
when  the  savage  foe  is  removed,  that  Brigade, 
commanded  by  Brigadier-Gen.  Kit  Carson,  would 
surely  reflect  credit  on  the  Territory  and  on  the 
Department  Commander." 

After  the  close  of  the  war  Christopher  Carson 
continued  in  the  employ  of  the  Government, 
rendering  such  services  as  only  one  equally 
skilled  and  experienced  could  render,  until  his 
death.  He  died  at  Fort  Lyon,  Colorado,  on  the 
23d  of  May,  1868,  from  the  effects  of  the  rupture 
of  an  artery,  or  probably  an  aneurism  of  an 
artery,  in  the  neck.  But  a  few  weeks  previous 
he  had  visited  Washington  on  a  treaty  mission, 
in  company  with  a  deputation  of  red  men,  and 
made  a  tour  of  several  of  the  Northern  and 
Eastern  cities. 

Li  his  death  the  country  has  lost  the  most 
noted  of  that  intrepid  race  of  mountaineers, 
trappers,  and  guides  that  have  ever  been  the 
pioneers  of  civilization  in  its  advancement  west- 
ward. As  an  Indian  fighter  he  was  raatcklew 


382  LIFE   OF   CHRISTOPHER   CARSON. 

His  rifle,  when  fired  at  a  redskin,  never  failed 
him,  and  the  number  that  fell  beneath  his  aim, 
who  can  tell !  (The  identical  rifle  which  Carson 
used  in  all  his  scouts,  during  the  last  thirty-five 
years  of  his  life,  he  bequeathed,  just  previous  to 
his  death,  to  Montezuma  Lodge,  A.  F.  and  A. 
M.,  Santa  Fe,  of  which  he  was  a  member.)  The 
country  will  always  regard  him  as  a  perfect 
representative  of  the  American  frontiersman, 
and  accord  to  him  the  most  daring  valor,  con- 
sistent kindliness,  perseverant  energy  and  truth- 
fulness which  that  whole  great  territory,  that 
we  must  still  regard  as  lying  between  the  civile 
,  Is  capable  of  furnishing. 


